Harry Potter and the Aftermath
by CJaMes12
Summary: Who can walk away from a title like 'The Master of Death?
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I own none of the characters in this story, they all belong to thier relevant creators**

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Harry looked across the crowd before him. He stood before them on the shore of Hogwarts Lake, next to the memorial that bore the names of all those that had fallen in the war. A brilliant white, glowing orange in the setting sun, it was a testament to all those who'd given their lives battling against Voldemort. Harry was watching their family and friends, all of whom were waiting for him to speak. He'd had a speech prepared, but the words seemed contrived now that he was actually standing in front of those meant to receive them. Hermione was sitting in the front row, leaning against Ron, her eyes imploring him to speak, her eyes flicking down to his pocket, which she knew contained his plan. Ron in turn was with his family, Ginny by his elbow and Percy beside her. George sat between his parents, having been pulled into a side hug by his father, his hard eyes set on the dais on which Harry stood. He recognised other faces in the crowd; Neville Longbottom, determinedly meeting Harry's eyes and giving a small nod, the look mirrored his Grandmothers; Luna Lovegood, one hand holding her father's, who refused to look at Harry; Lavender Brown, her eyes red, sat between her parents; Seamus Finnegan; Dean Thomas; the list went on, all war torn, all sat with their families and all waiting for him to speak. His gaze travelled from the crowd, past the tent in the distance which had been housing all those who hadn't returned to their homes after the war. The tent had been necessary as the castle's integrity could be called into question, large chunks having been ripped from the towers by giants, dust and debris still scattered throughout the corridors from ricocheting curses and flung objects. Hogwarts stood, bedraggled but proud, upon its hill, the remaining towers shining against the blue sky. From this distance he could barely see the damage inflicted during the final battle, the missing tip of a tower here, a blown out chunk there and it looked like there had never been a south tower. Harry lowered his eyes from his beloved home and opened his mouth to speak.

"The war is over. After many long years of fear and fighting, Voldemort is dead and this could not have been done if it wasn't for those who laid down their lives for us. We have all lost someone, whether they are friends or family, as they gave their lives so that we should live in peace. So we shall remember them, and thank them as they have given us the foundation for peace and we can honour their memories by building upon this to create the world they fought for."

There was a quiet, hundreds of eyes upon him, many of them damp or crying and could think of nothing else to say. Luckily, McGonagall took a step forward from behind him.

"Let's all have a moment of silence to remember those lost to us." She announced in her lilting accent and silence ensued, disturbed only by the sound of waves lapping the gravel shore.

That evening Harry sat on his bed in Ron's room, his roommate suspiciously absent with Hermione. He was glad for his absence though. It gave him time to examine the objects that had appeared in his possession two nights previously. He unfastened the clasp of the mokeskin bag that Hagrid had given to him and pulled from its depths the wand on the stone that had returned to him. He'd been emptying out his pockets before bed two nights previously and found next to his phoenix wand, Draco's wand and the remnants of the diadem, the Resurrection Stone and the Elder Wand. Ron had been stumbling about behind him and Harry had instinctively hid the items in the pouch. He now examined the cracked stone and crooked wand, both of which he had hid with the intention for them never to be disturbed. Magic had a different plan apparently. He knew instinctively that they would continue to return to him, he was the Master of Death after all. A title like that had to have other repercussions.

* * *

The repercussions themselves didn't become obvious until several years later. In the meantime, they decided to travel for a while themselves, to escape the wizarding world and the stragglers of the war. They went with Hermione to Australia and while she spent time with her parents, they rented a small house in Sydney, giving her space and time to talk with them. Much to her relief, they understood, and welcomed her back, inviting her to stay for a while. She joined them a month later, happier than she'd been in a long time. Her parents had decided to stay in Australia but made their daughter to promise to keep in touch, waving them off at the airport. They flew to America and stayed for a while in some of the major cities, DC, LA, New York. It had been mostly down to Hermione and Harry to explain to the others the Workings of the Muggle world, apparently, the Weasley's found it more interesting when it wasn't their father trying to explain it.

Hermione revealed a whole other side to herself, insofar as none of them knew that she'd been continuing to study Muggle science in the holidays, alongside magic.

"It's just fascinating." She told them as she dragged them through a convention she'd seen advertised in New York, "just what can be managed without magic." Ron did his best to appear unimpressed, but he eventually admitted that Hermione may have a point. Ginny had shaken her head, sharing a smile with Harry before heading towards a display on Astrology.

"Where's she gone now?" Ron complained, scanning the crowd for Hermione while Harry looked around bemusedly, eyes settling on Ginny who was listening to a scientist discuss his star charts with an intense look of interest on her face. He nearly fell over when Ron grabbed his arm and began to drag him through the throng of people. He looked where Ron was headed and spotted Hermione talking animatedly to a man by a display on the finer points of Nuclear Physics. She spotted the pair of them.

"Oh, Ron, Harry. This is Bruce, he knows quite a lot on the 'Microscopic Origin of Quantum Chaos in Rotational Damping' theory. We were just discussing it."

"Er..." was Ron's intelligent response. Harry on the other hand looked up at the guy, and held out his hand.

"Nice to meet you."

"Um, yeah, you too." Bruce looked apprehensively between the three of them, leaving Harry with the feeling that there was as strong likely hood that Hermione had been steamrollering over him in her excitement over this branch of Physics.

"Yeah, I'm afraid I have no idea what she was talking about," Harry admitted with a straight face and Hermione blushed. Bruce put his hand back in his pocket and replied,

"Well I've got a paper on it due by the end of term, so..."

Harry nodded. "Makes sense then. I'm afraid science was never in my repertoire." Bruce looked around the fair obviously and raised an eyebrow, so Harry continued; "Hermione dragged us here. It was her turn to choose."

He nodded and then Neville said from beside him, "Harry you've got to see this. It's really cool!"

And so Harry bid his goodbye to Hermione's new acquaintance and followed Neville to the far side of the building, far away from the nuclear physics to a piece on the finer points of aerodynamic flying, most specifically in planes.

"Flight without magic," Neville grinned, he had been one of the more impressed by the plane they'd used to fly there, "it is really amazing, isn't it?"


	2. Prologue II

**AN: Essentially, this is the second half of the prologue, thinking that it may be too long I split it. However, after recieving some advice (Thank You Lydia-Hood) I've decided to post the rest now. I plan to keep up with chapters of a decent length, so I will probably only post once a week, and because of various commitments (ie holidays) not at all in August and early September. I have been overwhelmed by the alerts so far, and now feel the pressure of producing something worth the interest currently shown. I hope this chapter lives up to any expectations, hopefully it will set a clearer premise.**

**Thank you for the reviews so far.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

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All in all, they seemed to be recovering from the war. At least during the day, in the sun, it could almost be seen as a distant past, a dream, the shadows, spells and blood seeming unrealistic under the bright summer sun. At night however, the slept fitfully, often coming together in the early hours of the morning to talk over hot chocolates in the communal lounge. Harry's were often accompanied by phantom pains in his scar which vanished moments after he woke up, leaving him feeling shaken and disoriented. To their surprise, Neville actually had it worse than as they'd expected, but they soon realised that his blasé descriptions of the Carrow's punishments hadn't actually scratched the surface of what had really happened. They went through it together however which seemed to lighten the load and Hermione's excessive research into PTSD and other such conditions that there was 'light at the end of the tunnel' so to speak. They couldn't keep bouncing around living off Harry and Neville's inheritance forever however and they returned to England back to their lives, feeling overall a lot more light hearted than they had when they'd left.

Harry, Ron and Hermione were streamlined into the Ministry, Harry and Ron trouncing the Auror exams while Hermione went into the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, much to Ron's amusement. Neville decided to continue studying and entered into a Herbology course while Luna and Ginny returned to a refurbished Hogwarts to finish their education.

He told Ron and Hermione about the Hallows pretty soon after their return and was right in his guesses about their reactions. Both were annoyed that he'd kept it from them, "Isn't what we went through together worth a little honesty mate?" before Hermione started worrying for him and the implications while Ron played the part of stoic best mate, making wise cracks about possible outcomes and the title itself to lighten the mood.

For the first few years, a fair portion of Harry's work was devoted to rounding up Death Eaters that had evaded demise during the Final Battle. Those that had been captured required trial many of which Harry testified in, each with a severe sense of satisfaction. He settled into his job, finding the decreasing list of known Death Eaters decreasing cathartic.

He started a relationship with Ginny once she left Hogwarts, just before she was signed to be a chaser for the Holyhead Harpies while Luna decided to explore the world for at least a couple more years before settling into anything.

A year later, Harry attended Ron and Hermione's wedding as best man, grinning broadly as Mr Granger walked his daughter down the aisle to where Ron was fidgeting with his cufflinks, an early gift from Hermione that she'd found in DC. Hermione looked beautiful in a simply designed, fitted dress with a train and veil, the back laced as one would a corset. The dress would have meant nothing though, had she not been radiating happiness, her smile transforming her as she walked the aisle. They were married outside, in the late afternoon in early August. There was a full turnout.

Pretty soon after that, Hermione changed departments at the ministry, much to Harry's consternation. She had already worked wonders in regards to both House Elf and Goblin rights, making herself a recognised name in several circles. She transferred into the Department for the Study and Application of Obscure and Unusual Artefacts, a fairly unknown but surprisingly active department. Harry was surprised to hear how many different types of jobs Hermione was called for, especially after she worked her way to the top of the food chain. She even interacted with the Muggle world on occasion, they found just as many odd items and Hermione often went to identify whether they were under the Ministry's jurisdiction, if so she would claim them and if not possibly stay to help identify them.

Her reasons for her transferral became apparent a year later. Four years after the Battle, Harry looked into the mirror and realised that he hadn't aged a day. In examination of his friends, he could see that they had all changed, their faces leaner, their bone structure more prominent, their stances emanating the air of someone older. Whereas Harry looked just as he had at the memorial service all those years ago. And it was becoming noticeable. Hermione admitted to having noticed a while ago and that she was studying what she could about the Hallows and other objects which interfered with growth but was coming up empty.

Pretty soon after that he broke it off with Ginny. How could he justify being in a relationship with someone who would grow old while he didn't? Sure there wasn't an age difference now, but before long there would be and what would happen then? He told Ginny this, quite bluntly and while she protested, he stuck to his guns, stopping her by asking how it was fair on either of them. She'd cried but accepted it eventually. They kept in touch, but it was awkward.

He stayed at work for another year, but soon, people started asking questions. Not wanting to face the theories and speculation, or any of the publicity, he quit his post. With his friends support he began to extricate himself from the wizarding world "You more than anyone," they told him, "deserve a quiet life." So he made an arrangement with Gringotts, set himself up with Muggle credentials and left for America.

A gaggle of people stood around him by the airport check in, the largest of which was Hagrid, who refused to not see him off. He ignored the baffled gazes of muggles and wrapped him into one of his trademark bone crushing hugs. The Weasley's were there, even George who gave him a pat on the back and a bag from Weasley Wizards wheezes before making way for his wife, Angelina to give Harry a hug. Mr and Mrs Weasly too were present adn Mrs Weasley bustled around him, checking he had everything adn asking if he was sure. He smiled wryly and assured her that he was, thanking her for everything. Neville, the newly appointed Herbology professor at Hogwarts had come without his fiancée, Hannah and stood to the side until Luna pulled him closer to say goodbye properly. Ron gave him a pat on the back and a travel set of Wizarding Chess, he looked sad but gave Harry a tight hug and a pat on the back before he was mugged by Hermione who flung herself on him, wishing him luck and promising to continue her research.

"I will find something, I promise."

It was easier, not seeing them age around him while he started into a new life. Harry made sure that he kept in touch with them, even if it was only by letter. He moved around for a few years, doing odd jobs here and there to earn cash to support himself. His vault could keep him going for many years had he wanted it to, but he realised that if he continued to remain the same age, over in the future his account would dry up with no sustenance.

One day, four years after he had left England, he stood a queue at the bank to deposit a cheque. He watched the people around him, idly going about their lives. There was a shift at the corner of his eye and a man pulled something from under his coat, held it above his head as two sharp sounds rang out. His actions were mimicked by five others around the room. Around him people screamed and ducked to the floor, someone grabbing his arm to pull him down with them. Harry looked up to see the only standing people in the room were the tellers and the six people toting what he now recognised to be guns.

"Just keep quiet and keep down and none of you will be hurt." The man barked, grinning through balaclava that he'd pulled over his face. Suddenly the hand on Harry's arm was pulled away and the woman it belonged to squealed as she was pulled to her feet by one of the robbers who was pointing a gun at her head.

"Stay where you are or I'll shoot her!" her captive shouted, and Harry realised that he'd surged to his feet and was glaring at the captor. He hadn't even realised that he'd moved. Now, as everyones eyes were upon him he had a moment to access the situation. HE knew that he couldn't draw his wand, not in a building full of muggles, but a part of him, the very stupid, Gryffindor part wouldn't let him stand down. So first he had to remove the woman from harm.

"Take me instead. Leave her be." The captor didn't move a muscle, "I'll do what you say."

The man who seemed to be leading the operation turned towards them and took a few casual steps in their direction, his heels clicking menacingly on the floor. His voice, when he spoke, came silkily, his words dripping with menace.

"Ah, but that's be concession, and concession is weakness." He turned to the room at large, raising his voice, "An example of why you shouldn't be brave!"

He span quickly and there was a bang. His body shut down the moment the bullet hit his heart. Faster than any spell he'd encountered, and completely unexpected, he had no chance to avoid it. The blackness consumed him before he hit the floor.

He came to on the marble floor, his eyes flickering open to look across the monotone stone. HE expected to see the numerous bodies he knew were sprawled across it. He sat up in surprise when he found the room empty. The room echoed around him as he stood, looking around. It was the bank, just as he'd left it, including the papers littered across the floor, dropped by one of the customers, but there was not a soul in sight.

At least there wasn't. A man suddenly appeared in the centre of the room, looking around with a cheery grin painted on his face. He saw Harry and the grin widened as he raised a gloved hand to pull of the deerstalker cap he wore.

"'Allo."

The man walked towards him, pulling of the brown leather gloves before proffering his hand for Harry to shake. "Good t' meet ya? Call me Death."

Harry did a double take. "Sorry what?"

The man scrunched his face in understanding, "Yeah, it's a new title. Still settling int' it."

And so Death was Cockney.

Death proved to be cheerfully enigmatic, answering all of Harry's questions, while successfully evading certain details that he wished to. After teasing him about how it was blatantly obvious that Death wouldn't let its master die, he made it quite clear that he was skirting around certain topics but refused to delve further into it. One of which most annoyingly was the subject of how to solve Harry's little problem. Death made it sound as if there was a solution but wouldn't say more than,

"Now I am afraid that I am not at liberty to tell yeh. You've got ta figure it out for youself."

He put great emphasis on random syllables, and had slung his arm around Harry's shoulder. At Harry's glare, Death's grin had widened and he patted Harry on the back.

"I think I like you Mr Harry Potter. Lord knows there can be worse Masters. May I be excused?"

Harry realised that he wasn't going to get any more from the man and nodded permitting Death to vanish from sight.

The bank around him faded in a haze to be replaced by blackness and heavy sense of his body as he lay on the cold floor, surrounded by whimpering people. He opened his eyes to slits, glad that his head had fallen at an angle that gave him a view of the room as a whole. Then leader had turned away, his follower dragging the woman with him in his wake.

"Tell the police that there is nothing to negotiate!" The man was shouting in the direction of the door, still making sure that there was an obstacle between him and the window.

"I'm just here to talk." A police representative's tentatively bold voice sounded from out of Harry's line of sight. "There's still a chance for you to get out of this. You haven't harme-"

"You're a tad late for that spiel," the leader grinned while the captive woman whimpered slightly. The man holding the woman was must have been a little too confidant at this point, as he was close enough for the negotiator to lunge for the woman, pulling the gun free and shielding her with his body armour as all hell broke loose.

Shots rang out, shattering glass and clipping or taking out all but the leader who'd moved a moment sooner and ducked out of the way. He skidded into motion, trying to make a run for it and in a moment, Harry was on his feet. The leader raised his gun to shoot behind him as he ran, levelling it with the hostages on the floor rather than anyone armed. He pulled the trigger and instinctively, Harry felt magic leave him, forming metal shields where he aimed, that reverberated as they reflected the bullets. Luckily for him, the intended victims were turned away, and saw nothing. Harry had barely a moment to marvel at his wandless magic before the noise brought him back to himself. Bullets continued to fly, but the leader had taken refuge behind a counter. Harry crept towards him, keeping low to avoid bullets. In the confusion no one had noticed the fact that a supposedly dead man had risen, but now that he was moving, he was more likely to be noticed. He got as close to the man as possible without being seen but still with a line of sight and on instinct levelled his palm and whispered "Stupefy."

A beam of red shot towards the man, covering the foot in a beat. It was barely noticeable but resulted in the man crumpling to the floor. He moved from the scene quickly, muttering as he went to various people that the man was out for the count and the word spread until the police, who'd ceased fire when the man had been out of the line of sight, rushed into the room. At this, Harry made his quiet disappearance. Too many people had seen him shot; he could deposit his money some other day.

From then he experimented with his wandless magic. It was easier if his wad was on his person at the time, but he was capable of doing it even when the conduit was nowhere near him. It helped he found to focus on the wand when he cast, especially when he wasn't holding it in his hand. This resulted in a much subtler form of magic, made identifiable only by his need to speak the words of the spells when he cast them, except those that he already knew silently, such as Levicorpus. He did actually call for Death at some point and asked for the logic of having one of the Hallows be a wand, which was later rendered practically redundant. Death had laughed, clapped Harry on the shoulder and said, "You know, I never thought of that. Good one."

Ten years after the war, Harry decided to settle for a more reliable job. Not wanting to be tied down in one place, he settled on a freelance job. His history set him up for law enforcement, leading him to become a PI. It suited him well to be fair; it allowed him to exercise his '_Saving People Thing_' and he could move around in the future, so his age wouldn't be too noticeable, he could continue to renew his paperwork with updated dates through Gringotts. The goblins were the height of discretion. He was good at the job, so after his first few cases and word started getting around, clients began to overlook his age and see merely the results.

He had to start again four years later when he moved to Chicago, but with his more conventional experience, he built his reputation in certain circles quicker. He did however resign himself to having to set himself up anew every so often. Sure enough, he moved to cut all of his ties, sooner than he planned as he packed up to move away from his flat. One of the problems with his system was the contacts necessary to be an effective PI took time to build. But magic made up for a lot of these shortcomings, and he allowed himself to call his contacts from his old cities as they wouldn't really notice anything amiss from just his voice.

He apparated from Chicago to land in New York. He looked about the city with a smile and the sense of new beginnings as he hailed a cab for the nearest estate agents.

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**AN: Hope it didn't disappoint. I will adapt with constructive critici****sm.**

**CJames**


	3. When Harry met Tony

**A/N I'm not one for massive long Author's notes, but I must say that I've been bowled over by the interest in this story.I have recieved over two chapters more reviews than I have in any of my other stories, so thank you all. I hipe this chapter lives up to any and all expectations.**

**I must thank FrisComyns, who had acted as my Beta reader.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

Despite Harry's growing list of contacts and acquaintances, he lived quite a solitary existence. He realised that his apparent age unnerved most people as he tended to act older than he looked. Maybe there was a preservation instinct, a subconscious nag that set him aside as different, close to Death. He didn't mind this though, especially as he kept in correspondence with his friends. He'd even flown back to England for Neville and Hannah's wedding. He used several spells while in attendance, to make himself appear older, at Hermione's suggestion, but found them surprisingly tiring and was relieved when he dropped them later, surrounded by his closest friends. George continued the line of jokes he'd set up before Harry had left; scooping firewhisky away from him, commenting on his inability to grow a beard in relation to his maturity... It provided a sense of comfort; he knew his friends accepted him. At the same time, he started noticing the beginnings of receding hairlines, small wrinkles and changes in them which showed their age, and he knew that before too long, they would move on, while he would be left behind, alone.

Before he left, Hermione took him aside, pulling him away from the rest of the group who were listening to Luna's accounts of her travels. He looked into her brown eyes which were scanning him nervously.

"Harry, I'm sorry I've not found anything yet!" her voice rose on the word anything, reminiscent of when they were children and Hermione was frustrated in her research. He smiled fondly at the throwback to the past.

"It's okay Hermione." And it was, to a degree. While saddening, he'd adjusted to his new way of life and had accepted it. He didn't want Hermione to feel guilty for something that wasn't her fault.

"No, it-"

"Seriously. I'm getting over it. Besides, I don't know if there's anything you can find. Death might have hinted at something, but he's being deliberately vague. It seems to be more of a 'he'll let me know when I'm ready', rather than a..." He trailed off at the look on Hermione's face. "You okay?"

"Death!" she squeaked, her hands over her mouth, "You've _seen_ death?"

"Uh... yeah? Nice chap really. Cockney."

His light hearted response didn't seem to quell her anxiousness however.

"Don't worry I'll tell you everything." He assured her as someone called his name. He was about to rejoin the group when Hermione grabbed his arm.

"Wait, there was something else. Harry." He looked at her expectantly while she smiled softly.

" Will you be our child's Godfather?"

Harry stared at her for a moment and suddenly the fact that she'd been stroking her stomach throughout the conversation, which he'd noted but not paid attention to, made sense. He grinned, happy for her, but then her query registered.

"Are you sure, I mean-"

"Yes I'm sure. Don't be a fool." She sniped affectionately.

He grinned, "Then I'd love to."

Hermione had hugged him, all of her relief and worry transmitted through the action. Ron had cheered and clapped him on the back with a "good on ya mate". Hermione was teary eyed when he left again, hands folded over her belly.

"Keep yourself out of trouble," she warned him as he went through the barrier at the airport.

"You keep me posted and give me a shout if you need anything," he replied, making no promises.

As it was, he did stay out of trouble, minor cases, a couple of stalkers but nothing he couldn't handle even without use of his magic.

And as luck would have it, he did make a friend... of sorts.

* * *

"_This astonishing announcement from the Stark heir-"_ Harry flicked off the TV, rising to his feet as there was a knock on his door. He pulled the door open to reveal a man, mid forties, permanent frown line, absentmindedly stroking the wedding ring on his left hand. Harry figured him to be worried about an affair and stepped aside to let the guy enter hesitantly. He sat in the proffered chair looking around anxiously before his eyes settled on Harry.

"You're a bit young aren't you?"

"I'm older than I look," Harry stated smoothly as he took his own seat.

The man nodded, still looking unsure, but tied up in his problem. "You were recommended to me by a colleague... Look, Mr Evans, I'm not a paranoid man. I trust in my wife. Of course I do. But..."

"Some of her actions aren't matching up." Harry filled in for the man only to have him nod wearily, deflating once the words were out. "Well I can help you there. Can you tell me what makes you suspicious?"

What followed was the stereotypical list, late nights, unaccounted for purchases and tales that didn't sit right. Harry nodded, taking note of the specifics.

"So can you help me?"

Harry nodded once more, "Yes, I shall do what I can,"

That's what led to Harry entering the Annual Stark Benefit Dinner, shadowing his target, a Mrs Harrow. Mrs Harrow, or Marie as her husband called her had arrived in a splendid green dress on the arm of a man most definitely not Mr Harrow. Taking advantage of her husband's business trip, she'd worked off the ring and the man had picked her up from the doorstep.

Harry had transfigured his clothes into something more suitable for the occasion and made his way in. He could only go back to his client with absolute proof and while the circumstances were incriminating, they were still explainable. He watched across the room as they ate together, chatting and laughing. He snapped a picture with one of the tiny camera's common amongst PI's when they kissed and began to make his way out, job done. Spying wasn't his favourite part of the job, he definitely preferred the taking down of proper baddies, but Mr Harrow deserved to know.

The electric gadgets he'd bought when he'd started out had originally faulted in the presence of his admittedly powerful magic. Out of necessity however, as he needed legitimate evidence for his work, he'd learnt to curb his effect on technology, and only rarely killed a device nowadays. He was nearing the entrance when a voice broke through his reverie.

"Leaving already? Party a bit dull?"

Harry looked up to see a face he'd come to recognise all too well from the news in the past few weeks. Tony Stark had a devious smile on his face as he eyed Harry.

Harry floundered for a response momentarily, he didn't have an excuse prepared after all.

"Wha- No. I have-"

Stark clapped a hand on Harry's shoulder, "Nah, I understand. Now I'm gonna go change that. Stick around. Fun's just starting."

With that Stark left, leaving Harry to continue making his way out of the party, leaving Stark to his benefit.

* * *

Stark grinned to himself, and to the world as he tore Hammer to pieces in court. Buoyed by his victory he turned to look around the courtroom to fully appreciate the admiration of his peers. He looked past Pepper and let his eyes roam over the crowd recognising people from the different factions who wanted his suit and the reporters that were regularly assigned to all things him. His gaze lingered over a boy that he knew from somewhere, but not in connection to anything relevant to the trial. It took him a moment to place the lean face and dark hair, but those green eyes and scar were distinctive. He could have sworn that the boy, who barely looked to be in his twenties had been at that benefit that Obadiah had tried to keep him from, over sixth months earlier. The boy met his eyes and grinned in Starks direction, giving him a lazy salute as he stood and left the room. Tony smirked but then the boy was forgotten in the heat of the moment as he was surrounded by people asking questions and calling his name. It wasn't too long before they saw each other again.

* * *

"There's a lot more to this whole thing than you think." Harry had told the woman who was currently his client. The recently fired young scientist had leant forward.

"What do you mean?"

Dana McRow had asked him to research a Justin Hammer, to find proof that she had been fired unjustifiably, based on some files that she shouldn't have seen. Harry had, in his perusal of information had come across a file of greater importance, relating to Starks Iron Man project.

"Essentially, the project that you stumbled upon involved more than just Hammer's company."

She'd nodded and gave him information regarding the facilities layout once he explained that he needed to be onsite for his little doo-hickey to work. Now Harry wasn't and never would be a techie, but he was acquainted with one who'd adapted a pen drive into a device that'd download the contents of a server in a flash. And it was this that he planned to use on Hammers network once he found a compatible terminal. He quickly found a suitable room and ducked inside. He crossed to the desk and turned on the computer. He waited for the login screen before plugging in the drive. He watched with amusement as various numbers and letters flickered across the screen. He sat back to let the device work it's magic, completely oblivious to the fighting that was happening across the other side of the facility.

He found out about the battle of that night and Hammers consequent arrest the next day. Regardless, he scoured through the files and found the evidence for his client. During his search however, he came across several files that looked as though they had been hacked directly from another server, Starks, apparently. He figured that he might as well do the man a favour and copied all of these, plus any other Stark related files to a disk to return to the man.

The next day, he rang the bell and found himself admitted into the tower that was the home of Tony Stark. At least, where he seemed to spend the most time. According to the news, he seemed to travel anywhere and everywhere on a whim.

"Hello, I'm Miss Potts." Stark's ex-CEO greeted him, holding out a hand. Harry shook it with a smile,

"Harry Evans. Sorry for disturbing you, but I have some files belonging to Mr Stark that I wish to return."

Potts eyebrows rose in surprise. "Sorry?"

"I'm a PI, I was asked to look into Hammer Industries and found something's that didn't belong there." He held forward the disk. "Everything's on here."

"And for what do we owe this Good Samaritan act?" came a voice from above. Stark himself was descending the stairs, coming up from behind Pepper to look down at Harry with an eyebrow quirked in interest.

"I simply came across it and thought that you might be interested." Harry shrugged and stepped away. "That's me on my way now."

"You were at the trial." Stark commented.

"So was Hammer, I was keeping track of him. Well played by the way."

"Thanks."

Harry was just about to say goodbye when Tony spoke, "Bit young for a PI, surely?"

"I'm older than I look," came the rehearsed reply.

"Old enough to drink?"

Harry raised a sarcastic eyebrow and nodded slightly. "Why?"

"Come join us for a drink sometime. I'd gladly buy a round for anyone who gets around Hammer."

"Sure." Harry waved good bye and left, not knowing that Stark would indeed chase up the promise and that they'd keep in contact from then on.

* * *

Harry Evans fascinated Tony. The casual PI had dropped into his life; well Tony had forced his way into Evans', believing that three chance encounters was a sign and the man had proved good company. His dry wit didn't quite match Tony's own, but was fair competition, especially over a good beer. There were just so many mysteries around the boy. That scar for instance, he'd asked Harry where he'd got it and he'd made an offhanded remark about a car crash when he was younger, which Tony didn't buy for one second. No way was such a specific scar a remnant of chance.

Then there was his age. He could claim that he was older than he looked until he was blue but that didn't change the fact that he was inordinately good at his job, even for a man in his early twenties. There was an aura, for lack of a better word, around Harry that emitted age, or at least wisdom beyond his years. There were times when Harry thought that Tony wasn't looking, that his shoulders would fall and an intensely world weary expression would cross his face. And yet there was a strange... 'goodness' about him. Tony had been around a while, seen the worst in a lot of people from reporters to competitors. One could probably say that he was jaded. For that reason, Harry's perspective, his Good Samaritan act bemused him. As a PI, Harry probably saw more of the darker side of life that Tony did but he still maintained his strange morality that could be labelled as naivety. It probably would be, if not for Harry's matter of fact assessments of the cities under life.

The boy was incredibly lonely, Tony realised. He didn't seem to talk to many people outside of his job aside from Tony and occasionally Pepper. He found this strange; he remembered fondly his times around that age, the parties, the girls, the drinking... Not that Harry showed even the slightest interest in any of those things. The Brit's isolation had been another factor that piqued Tony's interest, almost seeing it as a challenge to make Harry enjoy company.

Harry was always careful to avoid publicity. Tony being Tony, he was often surrounded by reporters and fans, but whenever they popped up, Harry seemed to melt away, sometimes with a quick whispered farewell, but often without. When questioned on it, Harry had grimaced and asked how Tony could stand it.

"The appraisal and pretty girls? What's to stand?"

Harry had shaken his head and muttered something about "Each to their own," and continued his filing, a process which Tony had rather rudely interrupted when he unabashedly flounced in and plonked himself down on Harry's desk.

Tony had found a picture album tucked into one of Harry's shelves while Evans was in the kitchen. There was a collection of Harry with the same five people next to different landmarks around the world. They appeared to be happy, but something was wrong with the pictures, Tony couldn't quite put his finger on it. While he flicked through the album, he kept looking about him; sure that someone was watching him. There were pictures from weddings that Tony skimmed over, noting that they appeared to be of Harry's friend's older siblings.

Before the holiday pictures came two pictures that stood out from the other. They were quite serious looking pictures, group shots, each with at least thirty people in each. One of them was set in a grand stone room and filled with what could only be students at a school, all in uniform. Harry was in the centre, looking younger than he was now. Tony spotted the other five in the picture, two of them, the brown haired girl and the red headed boy by his shoulder, the other three set further away, amongst the others. All of them shared a grim determined air that unsettled Tony, especially as it came from children.

The other was a collection of adults, Harry stood to the side this time, under the arm of a man with shaggy black hair and a boundless grin. His red headed friend was there as well, along with what could only be his family, all of them with flaming hair and awkward smiles. The other people in the picture were a mismatched bunch, one of them even appearing to be wearing an extremely old fashioned version of a false eye.

He heard Harry returning from the kitchen and quickly replaced the album. He straightened quickly when Harry entered, making it look as if he'd been examining a strange bronze spinning top lying on the counter.

One night, after he'd been at a party that had been liberal with alcohol, he'd had the fantastic idea to drop by Harry's. He had to say, after breaking into the flat with the key Harry provided him with a few weeks previously; finding one of his few friends in the throes of a pretty violent nightmare was extremely sobering. The drunken haze had slipped away as he rushed forward to shake Harry awake. The boy woke, and sat up quick as a shot, making to attack Tony. Tony had ducked, looking back to see Harry's green eyes, still hazy with the dream, even as they stared back.

"Wha- Tony? What are you doing here?"

"Thought I'd come and annoy you, and you repay me by lashing out. Are you okay?"

Harry had frowned at him for a moment as he registered his question before nodding his head and making to get out of the bed. "Fine. Bad dream. "

"No shit Sherlock."

Harry chuckled as he left the room, shadowed by Tony.

"And why would I be grateful of you annoying me?"

Tony merely scoffed while Harry made a beeline for the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water. He offered a glass in turn to Tony who accepted it, suddenly aware of the sandpaper that had taken up residence in his mouth.

"So, want to talk about it?"

Harry raised an eyebrow in Tony's direction. He appeared to be considering it before saying, "Nah. All's good."

Tony opened his mouth to complain before Harry cut across him, "You tell me your nightmares and I'll tell you mine." This effectively shut Tony up. How Harry could know about the dreams of his imprisonment he didn't know. Maybe the lad made an educated guess? Either way, Tony didn't want to talk about it. He got the point Harry was trying to get across though. Everyone was entitled to their own privacy. For now at any rate. Tony would get Harry to spill eventually.

That's when he noticed the scar. Scars, plural. Wearing a short sleeved baggy shirt with a low collar, Tony could see marks that had been hidden until now. Two stood out, a large oval appeared to have been branded onto his chest, next to a knotted scar that looked reminiscent of a bite. Both looked old, but must have been incredibly painful. Most worrying however was the long, thick line that travelled down his wrist. It couldn't have been self inflicted... Harry didn't seem like the type. But that was now. There may have been a time in the past that Harry had felt the need to. The thought of such action repulsed Tony but he couldn't stop the possibility from nagging at his mind.

Harry saw where Tony was looking and smiled grimly. "It's not as bad as it looks. I'm just incredibly clumsy."

Tony raised an eyebrow. "Clumsy. That's what you're going with?"

Harry pointed at the bite mark, "Pissed off snake," the oval, "hot coal," and then his wrist, "crazy guy with a knife. I just have a lot of bad luck."

Tony didn't know whether to believe him. There was one scar that remained unaccounted for. One that Tony had noticed pretty soon after he'd met Harry, but he'd never felt it the right time to ask. Tony wasn't known for his tact, but even he found it awkward to try and slip in the question, "So why'd you have '_I must not tell lies'_ carved into the back of your hand" into casual conversation. But this had drifted outside the realm of casual.

"And the back of your hand?" Tony asked over the rim of his glass before taking a sip.

Harry looked down at the writing before his mouth twisted into a smirk, "A pretty sadistic teacher." He shrugged at the look of surprise that slipped through Tony's carefully placed mask. "She's been dealt with."

That statement piqued Tony's interest, but Harry's tone said that that was where the topic ended and one thing that Tony had learnt about his friend was that Harry could be extremely bloody minded when he wanted to be.

There continued to be a mystery around Harry, though Tony believed that he knew him better than most. He hesitated in just throwing the intrigue out of the window by doing a thorough search on him through Jarvis, he had a feeling that Harry would react badly to such an intrusion of privacy and Tony, to his surprise, found himself unwilling to risk it. Good friends were hard to come by, and in the past few months, that was exactly what Harry had become.

He invited Harry to the opening celebration for his new Eco-Friendly tower, but strangely, the man never showed. He put off flying into action for as long as possible, but Harry remained absent, and out of contact. Everything was in place however and he need to go ahead that night, or waste a fair sum of money, but the celebration felt off as Tony was left to wonder.

**A/N People have enquired about the timeline for the story, so here's a brief idea, I must confess to moving the battle of Hogwarts forwards a few years to that the timelines would mesh,**

**1992- Battle of Hogwarts**

** -Meets Younger Bruce later that year**

**1997- Harry leaves Wizarding World**

**2002- Harry becomes a PI in LA**

**2006- Harry moves to Chicago**

**2009- Harry moves to New York**

**2010- Iron Man**

** -Harry meets Tony for first time at Benefit**

**2012- Avengers and now up to date.**

**I hope that this answers any questions amd makes sense.**

**CJames**


	4. Saving Hermione Weasley

**A/N, I must say that I have been blown away by the interest shown in this story. Thanks for all who have reviewed, and kudos to the guest who just sent me a smilie; it made me grin. **

**To those who have asked, this story will not be slash. I've always been a fan of canon pairings, so unless the slash is canon, I tend to steer clear. That said, I did mess up Harry and Ginny...**

**Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine, even the plot is starting to stray into that of Joss Whedons.**

* * *

No sooner had Harry entered his office then there was a tapping at the window. Harry crossed into his study and saw a small auburn owl perched outside on the ledge. He slid the window open allowing the bird to hop inside, a scroll of parchment tied to its leg. The bird stared at Harry, proffering its leg. Harry untied the letter, stroking its smart plumage before digging into a drawer for the owl treats that he kept for just such an occasion. Leaving the owl to munch happily on its prize Harry broke the seal and read his mail.

_Dear Harry,  
I just writing to tell you that I have been called to America for a research project as a ministry representative . As I'm in the neighbourhood I thought I'd drop by, you could show me around New York and we could catch up. Send Rapier back with a note, I should be wrapped up here in a couple of days. I hope to see you then.  
Hermione.  
_  
Harry smiled to himself. He ran the dates through his head. Tony's tower opening was the day after tomorrow; Hermione would be arriving after that. That just meant he had to clear his schedule for the following weeks, probably stay away from Tony. Hermione looked old enough to be his mother, and even Tony would find their firm friendship strange, and Tony was nothing if not curious.  
He quickly scribbled a reply and tied it to Rapier who'd been waiting patiently. The owl gave a low hoot and swept out the window into the night sky. Harry watched him vanish before remembering the tip that was the apartment above his office. He had a few days to sort it or face the disapproval of one Hermione Weasley.

* * *

Hermione Weasley nee Granger examined the cube with amazement. It rippled with blue energy, not unlike that of a Patronus. It wasn't magic; she had known that the minute that she'd seen it. She could feel its power, but she couldn't tap it. It evaded her efforts, shifting like fog in a breeze.

"We're inclined to think that it has a personality," commented the scientist who'd greeted her, a Dr Eric Selvig, a man truly enthusiastic about his work.

"Oh, definitely, " Hermione breathed as she stood, eyes still upon the cube, "but while I am fascinated, it's outside of my area of speciality." She looked back at Selvig, "If possible, could you please keep me up to date with anything you discover. It truly is amazing."

Eric bobbed his head, "Of course. This leads me to ask however, what is your speciality?"

Hermione smiled, "I afraid most of it is classified, but we can discuss what I can over food, if you want."

A grin lit up her fellow scientists face, "I'd love to."

Together they left the warehouse-style lab. Before walking from the room, Hermione took one last look around the room, taking in the scurrying scientists and their armed guards, including interestingly enough, a man sitting on a walkway at the far side of the room, watching. She passed her gaze over the Tesseract one last time before turning and following Selvig from the room.

Eric, who he invited her to call him, proved to be interesting conversationalist. He indulged her questions, placing a few of his own which she answered to the best of her ability. It was a shame when their conversation was interrupted by Eric's pager, waiving it he smiled apologetically,

"Sorry, Director calls."

She nodded and bade him farewell. It was after a few minutes of picking at her food that she realised it had grown cold during their talk and the already unappetizing food was now inedible. She grimaced and turned her thoughts to her upcoming plans.

She would leave tomorrow and apparate to New York as soon as she was out of military sight. Her partner, Cadman, would take her notes back to England for her, so that was all sorted. Having determined that the cube was nothing to do with them, they were withdrawing from the project. She'd checked with Cadman before coming to the dining room, and he agreed with her.

Hermione had begun to doubt that her research would ever turn up something to help Harry. Fifteen years, and still nothing. Not that she wasn't enjoying her job, she loved the puzzles and the travelling, but she continue to feel disappointed. Harry had done so much for her, for all the Wizarding World, and she couldn't help him with this one little thing. He seemed to be enjoying his life in America though, he'd seemed so happy, so much more relaxed at the Wedding, and his subsequent visits to see his Goddaughter, Rose.

Suddenly alarms started to blare, pulling her from her reverie. Everyone around her sprang into life, the higher ranking starting to bark orders over the shrill wailing. The next five minutes was chaos. Hermione helped by shift metal briefcases to an armoured vehicle before being advised to evacuate with the others civilian scientists.

Hermione nodded when the colonel gave her the direction, but then found herself torn between running and helping. Evidently, Harry's 'saving people thing' had rubbed off on her. Being a key player of the Wizarding War had left her with a sense of responsibility. She could at least help ensure the other scientists got out. For members of a military agency, they seemed unprepared for the emergency evacuation. She began to weave through the crowd towards the Tesseract room, coming across a room of freaked scientists on her way. They were trying to appear unperturbed, but their actions were strained, fumbling with their equipment as they tried to pack it away.

Hermione took charge, calming them and getting them out of the room. They were fleeing towards the exit; they were nearly there when an explosion rocked the base. Hermione twisted to see the tunnel behind them cascading towards them. The roof above collapsed, she never had time to draw her wand.

* * *

"Dammit."

Harry threw his coat onto his sofa as he made a beeline to his bedroom to change into fresh clothes. His client's entrapped wife had thrown a tantrum, tipping the contents of a neighbouring diners plate over him. While he'd managed to get most of the solids off his shirt, that didn't change the fact that spaghetti cabonara sauce was a bugger to get out of cotton. Not to mention he was running late. He was supposed to have been at Tony's ten minutes ago. He could send a text as he left.

He'd just ripped his filthy shirt off when he felt the back of his neck prickling. He paused, trying to pinpoint the cause of his discomfort. The needles pain spread to his gut, bringing with it a deep sense of unease.

He was just pulling a fresh shirt over his head when it hit him. A blazing pain shot through him, erupting from the centre of his chest and spreading across his torso.

It was gone as soon as it struck him, leaving him doubled over and breathing hard, a lingering sense of 'wrongness'. What the hell- Just as he was beginning to get over the first wave, another blasted through him and drove him to his knees. He rested his head on his bed as he tried to collect himself, his breathing strained. The only thing that he could liken the pain to was his scar, when Voldemort was at his angryist, but the horcux was gone, the connection dormant.

It was something to do with the Hallows. He couldn't pinpoint exactly where that certainty came from, but he knew it to be true. He stood shakily.

"Death." He said, or tried to. His voice came out croaky, breaking towards the end. He tried again, louder, "Death"

"I heard ya the first time."

Harry turned to Death who looked more serious than Harry had ever seen him.

Death had come without his coat, dressed instead in all black, the only colour in the Morris-patterned waistcoat he sported.

"What was that?" Harry got out through gritted teeth, still shaking from the aftermath of the pain.

"Unnatural," was Death's enigmatic reply, his dark eyes trained on Harry's. He didn't wait for Harry to complain at the briefness of the reply before he continued, "Someone, or something, is defiling the laws of nature."

"And because of the whole Master of Death thing..." Harry gestured to himself,

"You are more attuned to it. Correct." Death's eyes were narrowed, and for the first time, Harry could see the usually cheery gentleman as who he purported to be.

"What can I do, what can _you_ do?"

"You could go hunt down the thing and do something about it, I on the other hand, find myself surprisingly useless. He is twisting nature and as a part of nature, without a truly corporeal form, I find myself... ineffectual."

"So how can I do anything?"

"You control my power. But you have a physical form to back it up. Not to mention your remarkably strong magical ability." He smiled wryly, "At least you're trying to be proactive."

"Are you kidding, that hurt like hell! The sooner I put a stop to it the better."

Death nodded at Harry's implication, "I can give you advice."

"Harry!"

Ron's voice took Harry by surprise and he swivelled to look into his living room. It was lit with a flickering glow that hadn't been there before. Harry spared a glance to Death whose gaze was in turn trained on the firelight.

"Harry!"

Ron's voice, tinged with fear spurred Harry into action. He sped into the room and knelt by the fire, meeting the gaze of his old friend, whose head sat in the fire.

"Thank Merlin, Harry, you're here. Where's Hermione?"

Harry frowned at Ron's tone, worry starting to worm into him.

"She's working for the ministry isn't she? She didn't tell me where. Why?"

"The clock Harry, the clock! She's in trouble!"

With a flash, Harry remembered the clock that Mrs Weasley used to have hanging in kitchen that told the conditions of the family members. He vaguely recalled seeing a similar one in Ron's house.

"What's it say?" Harry asked urgently

"Mortal Peril." The words cracked as they were spoken, Ron's despair apparent on his face.

"Do you know where she is?"

Ron shook his head, "Just that she's in America. What can we do Harry?"

The gears were whirring in Harry's head and clicked as an idea struck him. A coincidence was just too unlikely, especially as Hermione was in the States to study a possibly magical artefact. He glanced at Death who seemed to also have come to this conclusion as he nodded.

"Look, Ron, hold tight. I'll contact you soon. Don't worry. "Harry paused, weighing his words, "I'll find her." "He muttered as he grabbed his jacket. "I can follow this feeling, whatever it is. Track it."

Ron nodded and vanished while Harry surged to his feet.

"I need to find her,

"It's moved. " Death informed him, "I doubt Hermione would have moved with it."

"But I can figure it out."

Death nodded and gave him a casual salute as Harry span out of his apartment, out of New York. Once out of sight of civilisation, he pinpointed the direction from which the uneasiness came and began to apparate, instinctively gauging the distance. Flying would have taken too long.

* * *

He undershot, but the feeling had increased tenfold with proximity, and he knew he was close. He apparated again, a shorter distance, but now he could see lights and a fire. He ran towards the lights and could make out ambulances and medical helicopters as he got closer. As he ran he pulled his invisibility cloak from the pouch at his belt and slung it over his shoulders, flipping the hood up to conceal him completely.

It was turmoil, people running and shouting, machines trying to shift debris, bodies being pulled from the wreckage which proved to be a large crater. Harry slipped through the scene, looking for something, anything of Hermione. Then he saw it, a flash of familiar bushy hair. He ran after the gurney, his eyes upon Hermione's battered face, blood caking the side of her face, her hair coming loose from its careful ponytail. Her eyes were closed and a paramedic was putting an oxygen mask over her face as she was loaded into a helicopter.

"We're good to go," a man yelled from inside the copter as the door slid closed and men began to evacuate to give it room to take off. Harry too was driven back as the blades began to beat the air. He barely waited before it was safe before taking to the skies, trailing behind the aircraft.

He landed next to the hospital that the helicopter landed at and stowed his broom away, back in the extended mokeskin purse. He watched the traffic coming to and from the building for a moment before making his decision. He sent off a message Patronus, barely pausing to watch it streak across the sky before shedding his cloak. He tucked it away with the other Hallows before crossing the street and entering the hospital.

It didn't take him long to find the ER. He was disallowed entry and was told to wait, they'd keep him informed. He fidgeted in his seat, tempted just to pull the cloak back out and sneak in, but the fragility of muggle medicine held him back. He didn't want to complicate things accidentally, for anyone in the ER whom he may accidentally contaminate.

And so he was stuck, sitting, twiddling his thumbs in the waiting room. He'd been there and hour, his mind racing, trying to figure out what he knew in regards to this foreign power, taking in the damage at the site and possible motives, but he didn't have anywhere near enough information. He was growling in frustration when he heard someone call his name.

"Harry!"

He looked up from the floor to see Ron charging down the corridor, looking dishevelled and sooty, he'd clearly rushed a floo trip. Harry stood to greet him and was enveloped in a quick hug before he was held at arm's length.

"In your message, you said- do we know anything?"

Harry shook his head, "Not yet. It shouldn't be long."

Ron sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Mum's got Rosie. I couldn't bring her. Not if it's..." he left the sentence trail off, looking worriedly towards the ER.

Harry placed a placatory hand on his oldest friend's shoulder, "Don't worry, she can visit when Hermione's awake and transferred to St Mungo's. "

Ron slumped next to Harry, "What actually happened?"

"I don't know." Harry murmured, "But I'll find out."

Hermione was moved to a ward a few hours later and allowed visitors. Ron was at his wife's side in an instant, while Harry hung back to talk with the Doctor.

"What's her condition?"

The Doctor threw a look towards the bed's occupant before turning to Harry, "She's in better shape than some of the others from the same sinkhole site. There was a minor skull fracture, but aside from a possible concussion there should be no further repercussions. Her left shin was also fractured, and there were numerous contusions, but our worry is for two of her lower ribs. They were broken in the fall and we worried that in may have torn some of her internal organs. We had to go in and remove some of the floating fragments. They've been bound, but recovery will be painful and take at least six weeks. We've got her on pain medication for now; it may be a few hours before she wakes up."

Harry nodded, "Thanks Doctor."

The man nodded and left, heading back into the ER to treat another patient. Harry relayed the information to Ron, who nodded but never took his eyes off of his wife. Harry shifted a chair so his friend could sit down without releasing her hand.

He was still holding it three hours later, even as tiredness overcame him and his head drooped onto Hermione's bed. The hospital was quiet, it was late at night and the turmoil from earlier had calmed and was under control. For the past few hours of worry, something had been nagging at Harry's mind. He'd passed it off to be the fact that he was in a hospital, death in the air. Harry was lucky insofar as he wasn't tuned into every death that occurred, that would be torture. But when in close proximity to those dying, part of him was aware of the passings. However, again, unless he focussed on it, it was a mere buzzing in the background.

This wasn't the cause for his unease however. In a flash of realisation, he remembered. Tony. Merlin, he was way too late for his opening night. With everything... he'd just completely forgotten. He glanced at the time, it was probably too late... But then again, Tony would have been celebrating, and he had no qualms about waking Harry up at any godforsaken hour of the night.

Looking at the no cell phone sign, he left the room and walked out of the hospital. He pulled the phone from his pocket and switched it on. He'd kept it off during his client meeting, out of politeness, and then in the kerfuffle off the spilled food and his rush home, he'd forgotten to turn it on again. He dialled Tony and got passed onto Jarvis.

"Mr Evans, we were worried. Good to hear from you."

"Ah, Jarvis. Thanks, umm, how's Tony?"

"Working, he was given some important files to look over. Shall I send you through?"

"Um, no. Don't bother I wouldn't want to disturb him. Look something came up, don't expect me to come by for a few days. Just tell Tony when he's finished whatever he's doing."

"Of course. Good night Mr Evans."

"Harry, please."

"Harry." The A.I acknowledged.

"Good night."

Harry hung up, turning off his phone and pocketing it as he walked back into the hospital.

* * *

When he entered the room, he was surprised to see that Ron was awake and on his feet, leaning over the bed. He turned to Harry, grinning.

"She woke up!" He looked back at Hermione, whose eyes were now closed, "At least, she was awake. But that's good, right!"

Harry smiled, "Yes Ron."

"We can look into a transfer as soon as she's capable of travel."

Harry nodded, but part of him was annoyed that he'd missed Hermione's moment of lucidity. He couldn't do anything about the culprit until he knew what happened, and Hermione was his best bet on that score.

Early that morning, Ron had fallen back asleep; there was a knock at the door. Harry, who'd been tied up in thought s of what he needed to figure out, looked up to see a man, some sort of suited official, standing in the entrance.

"Hello, sorry for disturbing you, I'm Agent Coulson, from S.H.I.E.L.D." He proffered a hand, which Harry rose to shake.

"Harry Evans, PI. Can I help you?"

Coulson looked across to Hermione, "I was coming to check on Dr Weasley, she was under our facilities jurisdiction after all."

Harry sharpened at that, "She looks like she'll pull through. What happened?"

Coulson's eyes were shielded as he replied, "An extremely unfortunate accident, a review is being conducted as we speak." Harry stopped himself from narrowing his eyes; it wouldn't do to show that he didn't believe a word coming out of the Agent's mouth.

"I am curious though," Coulson continued, "How did you hear about the incident so quickly, we hadn't contacted family before you showed up."

Harry found himself on guard, mind whirring as he came up with a plausible reason.

"Hermione and Ron were coming to visit me after her stint of work over here. I was in the city when the medical vehicles began to stream in; someone mentioned a government facility, so I thought I'd check it out. When I found out, I called Ron and he came straight from the hotel."

"Very lucky." Coulson commented.

"It'd have been luckier if it hadn't happened at all." Harry stated, levelling his gaze with Coulsons.

"Of course," the agent conceded, "Of course, we'll cover the medical costs. Have a good day Mr Evans."

Harry nodded, "You too."

Agent Coulson left the room, leaving Harry with a distinct sense of unease.

* * *

It wasn't until early afternoon that Hermione came round again, lucid enough to give information. Harry had spent the day as runner for Ron, getting food and drink, calling Death to discuss further the attacker. Unfortunately, they drew blanks, leaving Hermione as Harry's best option to proceed. If push came to shove, he'd track down Coulson, but he didn't see the man being particularly forthcoming with information and Harry didn't want to force the information out of him unless he had no other option.

"Harry?"

Harry turned and saw Hermione's clear eyes focussed on him and he rushed forward grinning. He shook Ron awake, and the red head exclaimed excitedly, buzzing with relief.

"I need to ask you something." Harry said, cutting through Ron's chatter, "What actually happened?"

Hermione frowned, "I'm not entirely sure... Self destruct sequence... I think... The base was ... breached." Her voice was quiet and sore and she took deep breaths, her brow wrinkled as she tried to remember. "That's all I can tell you."

Harry scowled, that wasn't nearly enough to go on, "Was there anything unusual there. A weapon? Something someone may have broken in for?"

His tone was urgent and Ron looked as though he was about to bring Harry up on it but Hermione spoke first.

"Well, it's not a ...weapon, but someone may... have wanted it... I was there to study... It's called a Tesseract... source of energy... not magic though. Wait, Eric... is Eric okay?"

A Tesseract? "I don't know any Eric I'm afraid. I could ask for you. Can you tell me anything else?"

Hermione shook her head and Harry sighed, "You just rest then." He looked at Ron who was tucking a strand of loose hair behind her ear, Harry was determined to find the ones responsible for this, for the more personal reason of vengeance now, over just duty.

Just then, a flash ran through him. Whatever the unnatural technology was, it had just been used again. Much further away, barely a tickle at the back of his mind, but he caught the feeling and focussed on it. He could track it.

"Harry?"

His emotions had obviously been showing on his face as his two friends were looking at him curiously. He brought himself to the present and nodded in their direction.

"I've got to go. Work on getting better, okay Hermione?"

"Wait, but-"

"No, this is something I need to do. Don't worry. Just... get better."

With that he left the room, pausing only to give a casual wave. He tried to ignore the concern on his friend's faces as he wove his way through the medical staff and patients, making his way out of the hospital. Once outside, he pulled the cloak on and began his chain of apparations.

After two jumps, he came to the East coast. He was only now appreciating all of the travelling in his younger days; apparating was so much easier if you knew something about where you were apparating to. However, jumping over the sea was risky, even Voldemort had had to fly a good distance over it to get close enough to apparate to Malfoy mansion, all those years ago.

However, Harry had the Elder wand. It boosted the rest of his magic, why should this be any different. He pulled the wand and its holster from the bag and strapped it to his arm, physical contact made the magic so much easier, took a deep breath and spun on the spot.

* * *

**A/N I'm afraid I'm off on holiday now, so updating from now on will be sporadic. **


	5. Where Harry Dares

**A/N Thanks to my Beta, Fris Comyns, for all the work she's done to get this and my previous chapters presentable. **

**Disclaimer: I own none of the characters.**

* * *

He gasped for air upon arriving in... Germany, looking at the street name, Königstraβe, King Street, he thought. It'd been a while since he'd been in Germany. He turned on the spot, looking around at the bright shop fronts, taking in the cars flashing past and the people walking around him. It was a minor miracle that no one appeared to have noticed his arrival; his cloak didn't hide the crack of apparition. That was when he heard the screams. Some of the people around him reacted, but most ducked their heads and continued along their way.

The nagging feeling was nearly overpowering, and only grew stronger as he ran through the crowd. He skidded to a halt when he saw what they were running from. A group of people were on their knees, surrounded by figures holding a glowing sceptre. Each of these was a copy of one man, he realised, their features clouded and less defined than the original that was stalking amongst the kneeling people, revelling in his power.

He was dressed in green and black robes, bound with leather armour and a helmet with large horns that curled into the sky, reminiscent of the sacred bulls of Egypt. It was without a doubt one of the weirdest outfits he'd ever seen, and he'd witnessed wizard's attempts at dressing as muggles.

"You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel."

The man was good, telegraphing his power, his sly charisma reminiscent of Voldermort's when he was gathering men to his side, especially after Harry's 'death'. Like Voldermort, this man radiated power, but not magic. This man's power came not from this worlds magic, nor was it the energy that had been disturbing Harry. No. That effect was coming from the staff in the man's hand. It glowed a mysterious blue that seemed to reverberate through him, creating a sense that Harry couldn't put into words. Though Harry had to wonder why the oppressor was continuing in English, considering the fact that they were in Germany.

And as there had been all those years ago, there was a dissenter. An old man stood slowly, glaring at the man,

"Not to men like you."

Neville's defiance of Voldemort leapt to Harry's mind and respect for this man surged through Harry just as he realised that he'd been standing for too long. He'd paused to allow himself to assess the situation, but now he ran the risk of losing a life, as the elderly man continued to defy his captor.

The crowd was too packed for him to risk apparating, so he began to run. Luckily for him, this man was going to do another Voldemort and try to make an example, and as a result, draw out his attack. Not knowing the type of his new enemies magic, he didn't want to risk throwing spells directly at him, not when surrounded by civilians.

He wasn't going to be there in time. He raised a palm with the intent of throwing a protego in the old man's direction. The sceptre was in line with the elderly gentleman and a blast of blue light erupted from the end, simultaneously sending a spike of awareness through Harry.

"Pro-"

Before he could finish the spell, a figure in blue and red had leapt in front of the gentleman and the blue light ricocheted off the large circular shield he was holding. It bore a pattern reminiscent of the American flag and was angled in such a way that the blast was deflected straight back at the attacker.

"You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing." The man was dressed in a blue body suit that was clearly to make a statement judging by the mutterings that ran around the crowd.

"The soldier-"the attempted oppressor started to say, but Harry took the opportunity the moment his clones vanished to start shifting civilians out of the line of fire. The soldier seemed to know what was going on and Harry wasn't bigheaded enough to believe that he needed to be in the limelight to be useful.

He pulled off his cloak and started pulling people to their feet as an aircraft he didn't recognise descended over them, something that looked suspiciously like a weapon folded from its underbelly. The people around him ran where he directed them as an announcement echoed around the square,

"Loki, drop the weapon and stand down."

Loki. Like the Norse god. At least now he had a name for the guy. Loki shot another blast at the ship and members of the crowd ducked and stumbled. They started running again as the two figures began to fight again. Harry had just reached the side of the ederly rebel who seemed unable to move quickly when the American was knocked to the ground. Harry raised his palm to shoot a stunner in Loki's direction but the American surged to his feet and continued on. From then on, Harry couldn't risk shooting without hitting the soldier. He was a good shot, but he didn't want to risk taking out the one who could reliably fight Loki. He still didn't know how their magic's would react when pitted against each other.

The square was now clear but for Harry and the warring two, not including the aircraft, which wasn't technically in the square. Just then, music began to blast through speakers, echoing through the air, some modern muggle rock that Harry didn't recognise. Then he saw a flash of red and it suddenly made sense. The music was _so _Tony. Oh Dammit! Tony!

"Make a move reindeer games." Harry's friend said to Loki who raised his hands and allowed his outfit to flicker away to the somewhat normal clothes he had underneath. It wasn't a form of magic Harry recognised.

Loki had dropped the sceptre and Harry found his eyes drawn to it. That was the cause of the accident that had hurt Hermione and was making Death and by extension, Harry, uneasy. He'd barely taken a step towards it when,

"Harry?"

He looked away from the blue glow up into Tony's face. He'd pulled the mask back, giving Harry a full view of his frown.

"Ah, Tony!"

Harry knew that the nonchalant tone was pointless, considering, but it slipped out. He needed to find out what he could about what was going on, but not say anything about the whole wizarding thing. Like that was going to be possible.

"What are you doing here?" Tony's eyes were narrowed as they scanned Harry who in turn became acutely aware that he was wearing day old clothes and feeling fairly ruffled from the constant apparitions over the past 24 hours.

"You know him?" asked the soldier, coming over after depositing a restrained Loki at the landed aircraft with a woman who was now guiding him inside it.

Tony didn't answer but raised an eyebrow, indicating that he was waiting for an answer. Harry toyed with saying something about being there for the Gala that was being advertised on the building behind them but knew that that wouldn't hold any water. And Tony's tone gave weight to the implied seriousness of the situation and his worry. So, something closer to the truth.

"My friend is in hospital because of him." He pointed in Loki's direction. "I want to know what's going on."

"And you just managed to catch up to him in Stuttgart?" asked Tony, incredulously.

Harry shrugged, "Well that's my job, isn't it? "

Tony was revving up to snipe back when the soldier spoke again.

"Tony?"

"Evan's a PI. He's a friend." Tony muttered. Last name terms, that wasn't a positive sign.

"In Germany?" the soldier's incredulous reaction seemed to annoy Tony,

"Yes, yes, we've done that. Keep up." He stated, fluttering his hand in a dismissive gesture.

"You two, we've got to head back." Called the woman from the aircraft.

"Look, can I come with?" Harry asked, stepping forwards. He needed to keep up with the sceptre, find out what it was and most likely destroy it.

"No." Tony said, in unison with the soldier, much to the latter's apparent surprise.

"It's not safe." Tony growled looking down on Harry, the extra few inches the suit gave him emphasizing the height difference between the two of them. Even the soldier was two heads taller than him.

"You're a civilian." The soldier added, "I'm sorry for your friend."

"We," Tony pointed between himself and Harry, "Need to have a talk. Later. Not least about how you managed to fly to Germany at a moment's notice."

With that Tony stomped towards the craft, followed by the soldier who threw a look back at Harry. Harry watched after them as they paused on the ramp to talk to the red head whose eyes were narrowed at Harry. Harry met her gaze, sliding his hands into his pockets as he debated his next course of action. He could track the sceptre again, but with it not in use, he didn't know if he would be able to trace it as easily. He could fly behind the craft, but he didn't know how far they were going and that could be uncomfortable, especially as there was a storm in the air. Then again, the inside the craft itself was cramped. There was no way he could hide in there in his invisibility cloak and not be noticed. All it would take would be one of them stretching and he would be at risk of being jostled. So flying it was.

Harry stood watching the craft as Tony and his companion walked up the ramp, turning to look back at Harry. Harry met his gaze and held it as the ramp closed, knowing that he had to wait before moving. He stood in the centre of the plaza, watching the craft as it took off, the rotors creating winds that tore at his clothes.

As the wind died down, he walked away, taking note of the direction that it was flying in before ducking around a corner. He pulled on the cloak and rooted out his firebolt, shooting up into the sky a moment later. The cloak rippled around him, but while the invisibility wasn't perfect, it provided the basic cover he needed. It was less likely that someone would spot bits of a person on a broomstick than they would a whole person on a broomstick.

He caught up to the craft, letting it cruise a hundred metres ahead as he settled in for what would likely be a very boring, cold and by the look of those storm clouds, wet ride. Sure enough, from the moment they hit the clouds, he was soaked, a quickly spelled _Impervious_ keeping his glasses clear. He stayed high; he figured that the all encompassing dampness was better than being pelted by rain, but soon lightning began to flash through the sky, giving him second thoughts.

He swooped lower, breaking through the cloud cover in time to see a large object hurtling from the craft. His seekers eyes managed to pick out what looked like two figures, one was definitely Loki, sans staff. A moment later, in a flash of red, Tony, followed, his jetting flares standing out in the dark as he shot after Loki. Harry hesitated. The staff was still on board the craft, he could just keep on course to finish what he was there to do. On the other hand, he may be able to help Tony, who knows what may have flown off with Loki.

He forced the nose of his broom around and shot after his friend, following the lights from his suit. He came down past a rocky crag, spotting Loki standing, looking out over the edge into the surrounding forest. Tony was nowhere to be seen. The uneasy feeling that Harry had had last time he'd been in close vicinity to the man was gone; it appeared to be tied to the sceptre.

"Stupefy." He muttered as he flew past, slowing only to make sure that he collapsed; there was no point leaving him with an opportunity to escape. He could wake him before Tony came back that way. He flew over the forest and spotted Tony standing in a clearing, his visor raised. A few metres away stood another man, tall, broad and dressed strangely for muggles. Power radiated from him, similar to that of Loki's but with subtle differences.

Harry landed as Tony slid his visor down, causing his next words to come out robotically,

"Stay out of the way. Tourist."

Of course Tony would try to anger the guy further. The power built around Tony's opponent as he raised a large hammer that Harry hadn't noticed before and threw it at Tony.

"Repulso!" Harry whispered quickly, pointing his palm at the hammer, sending it over Tony's shoulder into a large tree. The wood splintered upon impact with a resounding crash; it was a miracle that the tree remained standing. Goodness knows what would have happened if it had hit Tony, even if he was wearing his 'all powerful' armour.

The other man threw his gaze around wildly, settling unnervingly close to where Harry stood. Tony on the other hand was staring at his opponent in disbelief.

"Really! And I thought Pepper was a crap shot." He raised his hand, a whine filling the air, "Let me show you how it's done."

The beam shot from Tony's palm, burning across the clearing and hitting the other man who was still distractedly looking in Harry's direction. Tony flew at him, kicking and punching. The man took the hits, raising his arms to block them before he found an opening and hit back. Tony was sent backwards, allowing the man the opportunity to _summon_ the hammer. It flew back across the clearing, only narrowly missing Tony. Harry raised his hand again, but the man acted first. He pointed the hammer to the heavens, acting as a lightning rod as lightning came from the skies, striking the hammer before shooting off on a tangent at Tony.

It struck him, blue sparks rippling across his armour. Harry swore, and made to attack but Tony didn't seem to be detrimentally effected. In fact the lights in his chest and eyes appeared to be shining brighter than before.

"How 'bout that." Said Tony, his voice leaking that smug grin he often wore, before flying once more at the other man; quite possibly Thor, taking into account Loki, and their similarities, the fact that he had a hammer and used lightning and what details he could remember from past lectures from Hermione regarding Norse Mythology. It seemed the best fit.

Harry, who hadn't dismounted his broom, flew after them, deciding to watch from a distance as they tumbled across a cliff. He didn't want to risk hitting Tony, besides he was holding his own. The hammer didn't actually seem to be doing much damage to Tony; he'd taken several hits by this point and seemed relatively unharmed. The same could not be said for their surroundings.

Harry hovered over the carnage, watching the pair have at it, knocking each other around a newly man made clearing. Movement out of the corner of his eye attracted his attention and he saw the soldier from before parachuting into the woods.

He vanished under the tree cover and Harry scanned the area for movement. A moment later there was a blur of colour as the soldiers shield shot across the clearing, hitting Thor and ricocheting into Tony before flying back to the soldier.

"That's enough you two!"

The soldiers' voice brooked no argument as he jumped into the clearing, echoing up to Harry. His next words were inaudible but directed at Thor. They conversed, but whatever was said obviously didn't impress the Norseman as he struck Tony swiftly with his hammer, sending him flying. Harry swooped closer as Thor leapt at the soldier, his hammer poised to strike. The soldier ducked behind his shield as Harry prepared to intervene.

The hammer struck the shield, Harry was too slow, and an explosion of force washed over him, sending him tumbling backwards and away, higher into the air. It took all of his attention to keep his grip on the shaft of his broom.

He regained control, several hundred meters higher than before, shaking his head to clear it. He began to dive before seeing Tony take to the air, followed shortly by Thor. It appeared that they'd made up and were headed back to Loki. Harry diverted his dive and went to Loki, still unconscious where Harry had left him. One quick _Enervate_ later and Harry retreated as he watched the soldier pull a bemused Loki to his feet in order to take him back into custody. Loki's eyes scanned his surroundings before turning in Harry's direction. Harry's insides twisted, could he see through the cloak? No. His eyes weren't looking _at _him as much as _through _him. He knew someone was there. And so did Thor, if his glances in Harry's general area were anything to go by. He was able to sense their power, it wasn't too much of a stretch to imagine them able to sense his.

He trailed after them, resigning himself to another long stretch of flight with little to do but ponder how rusty his reactions had become in such a high paced situation.

* * *

Harry was beginning to feel the last two night's lack of sleep. With his worry over Hermione and his tracking of the sceptre, he hadn't had a chance to rest and he was becoming more aware of this as time passed and the adrenaline in his system had long since gone. That was when a large shape broke through the clouds in front of him.

Harry couldn't help but stare in amazement. He always found himself impressed by muggles and their ways around their lack of magic. Tony's tower in itself fascinated him. But this, this was something else entirely. It was a floating facility. Held aloft by propellers, it put all other aircraft to shame. He knew enough about physics from Tony to understand the forces at work on the structure and the power needed to keep it aloft.

The smaller craft landed on its roof and Harry touched down a moment later, just as the ramp was being lowered and the inhabitants descended to be met by a contingent of soldiers. Loki was traded and the sceptre taken by another man who slipped away while Loki was secured. Tony made his way to a door into the larger craft, followed shortly by the soldier, the woman and after some hesitation Thor, who kept throwing glances at Loki before he was ushered from the deck.

Amongst the armed escort, none of them noticed the door stayed open a moment longer than it should have done. Harry stood in the corridor, watching Loki being led away. In such close vicinity, Harry could feel the sceptre, Loki was being led in a similar direction to it, so Harry followed the men further into the complex.

They passed rooms with windows, filled with faces watching the prisoner on his walk of shame. And then, in one of the rooms, the door opened and a man carrying the sceptre entered the lab. That was his destination. He broke off trailing Loki and followed a corridor that looked like it should head in the right direction.

As an obviously military facility, there was a certain logic to its layout, and so, Harry found himself directly by the lab door, just as the delivery boy was leaving it.

Harry caught the door and let himself into the room. And there was the sceptre, sat on the table at the far end of the room. A man was bowed over it, examining it closely. Harry came up to it, as close as he could be without touching the man, focussing on the sceptres power. He shivered, repulsed by the intrinsic nature of the sceptre, and what it's power was being used for.

"Dr Banner sir?"

Harry took a quick step back to avoid the man, Dr Banner, as he straightened and turned in response to the speakers call.

"Yes?"

"Director Fury wants you all assembled on the bridge."

Banner nodded. "I suppose he would. Thanks."

The other man inclined his head and left the room. Banner took one last, studious look at the sceptre before following him out of the lab. This was his chance, Harry could take the sceptre and be done.

"For how long have Warlocks been immortal?"

Harry spun on the spot. He hadn't even heard the man's entrance which seemed impossible, Thor wasn't a small man. He was standing in the door, having caught it before it had swung shut after Banner, looking in Harry's general direction before taking a step forward, a grin on his face.

"My people have not been in contact with yours in many years, it is good to meet you friend."

Harry didn't speak, his mind whirring as he tried to think of a way out of this situation. He was painfully aware of the cameras trained around the room as he went through his options.

Thor frowned, "I know you are there friend, why do you not reveal yourself?"

"I'd rather not be caught on camera." Harry admitted carefully.

"The recording devices?" Thor asked uncertainly, "Why do you not wish to be seen? I thought you were here to help. You assisted the man of iron earlier."

"I am I suppose," Harry mused, "But I'm not here for the same reasons as the others."

"You have the same goal though." Thor asserted, "To protect your world from damage regarding the tesseract."

The what-? "Uh, yes?" That wasn't the sceptre was it? Harry didn't think so. HE probably shouldn't act until he knew all of the facts

"Then you should reveal yourself." stated Thor confidently.

"It's not quite as simple as that." Harry muttered.

Thor frowned, "If you wish to be any use in this fight, then they need to know that you are here to fight with them. A team cannot function well if it doesn't have all the information. This is common knowledge amongst soldiers."

Harry grimaced. That was true. He knew as much from his days as an auror. That still didn't change the fact that he had to be careful.

"I understand-"

"If you are unwilling to reveal yourself, how can I be sure of your intentions? I will tell them myself." Thor warned.

"No! You don't have to do that. I will. Just give me a bit to figure everything out. "

Thor nodded, smiling once more, "That I shall. Now I was called, I must be going." He made to walk from the room.

"Er, wait a moment." Harry called after him, "Er, the immortal thing, how did you-?"

Thor shrugged, "Age hangs about a person as a mantle. Yours has seen many more years than most on Midgard and Asguard."

Unknown to Thor, Harry frowned. Even though he looked to be 19, he was only 39 years old. That wasn't beond the realms of normal for a human. It must have something to do with Death itself. "Erm, any chance you could keep the 'immortal' thing quiet. It's just, well, it isn't normal for wizards, and it's kind of... personal."

Thor seemed to consider it before, "Of course friend, I can understand. Now I must take my leave."

And with that the god left, leaving Harry quite bemused. He'd seen a lot in his career but that was new.

Realising that he needed to know more about the situation he currently found himself in, he left the room, throwing one last look back at the sceptre, before heading after Thor to eavesdrop on their meeting.

* * *

**A/N Thanks for all the support so far.**


	6. The Usual Avengers

**A/N **

**I altered something in Thor's conversation with Harryin the last chapter that was grating at me. It isn't anything major, it is refernced in this chapter however, so for continuityk I thought I should point it out.**

**This chapter was actually a bugger to write, I may come back and rework it in the future, but for now I hope that it goes over well. If I have missed any glaring grammar or spelling errors in my troubleshooting feel free to point them out. Enjoy. **

**Disclaimer: Don't own any of this.**

* * *

Harry trailed after Thor, who in turn followed one of the ships personnel who'd been waiting for the Asgardian at the end of the corridor. After a few minutes of navigating the complex's corridors they came to a sliding door which opened to admit Thor and his guide. Harry darted forward quickly to get through the door which closed smoothly behind him.

He was standing on a platform which looked onto rows of computers, their operators buzzing around them. Beyond that was a great expanse of glass, disrupted by a hexagonal frame structure, that looked out into the dark sky

He was standing on a platform which looked onto rows of computers, their operators buzzing around them. Beyond that was a great expanse of glass, disrupted by a hexagonal frame structure, which looked out into the dark sky. Closest to him, in the centre of the platform was a large round table around which stood faces that he recognised. Sat at opposite sides of the table were the red head and the Soldier. Banner stood between them, behind a chair, his arms crossed, his attention on a screen lying on the table. Or one of several screens. At each seat there was a screen, each showing the same picture of Loki, standing in a cube of glass and metal, a fancy cage. Thor barely glanced at the screen before he averted his gaze, choosing instead to stare out of one of the nearby windows. Harry stood beside him, his attention, however, was on the closest screen.

"We thought you'd want to be present." a woman commented from her place next to the biggest and only horizontal screen showing the camera feed on the platform. Thor nodded but kept his gaze trained on the black glass.

"_In case it's unclear,"_

The deep voice came from speakers around the room while Harry watched the dark skinned man face Loki. Broad-set, in a long black coat and eye patch, the man radiated power, much like Kingsley; Harry suspected that he was in charge on this vessel.

"_You try to escape- you so much as scratch that glass-"_

The man push a button on the console next to him and Harry's eyes widened as with a whirring, the floor beneath the cell folded away. A whistling came through the speakers as the microphones picked up the wind that the aircraft was cutting through.

"_Thirty thousand feet straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?"_

The man held Loki's gaze for a moment longer, gesturing to the control panel for emphasis before he hit a button to close the hole.

"_Ant. Boot._"

"_It's an impressive cage_." Loki's voice was silky and for some reason unnerved Harry, who'd now edged closer to the screen to get a better look. "_Not built for me I think."_

"_Built for something a lot stronger that you."_

Banner stiffened, drawing Harry's attention. He glanced at the man, puzzled before Loki spoke again, in that tone reminiscent of Draco, one that had always made Harry want to hit the blonde boy.

"_Oh, I've heard. A mindless beast, makes play he's still a man._"

The red head turned her head to look at Banner and Harry looked between them, intrigued. The doctor met her glance with a quick self deprecating smile before looking back at the screen, but Harry could read the tension in him, despite his casual manner.

So this man, like the others; Tony, Thor and the Captain, was special. A beast masquerading as a man so, a werewolf? Or something along those lines. People like that were often misunderstood, he'd heard many of Hermione's rants in regards to their rights, it would explain some of the personnel's actions around the man, he'd noticed that they seemed to be slightly more on edge in his vicinity. But that cage... if that was dropped with a person inside it, that would be devastating. The idea of inflicting such a fate upon a person purely for being a shifter unsettled Harry and caused him to look at the people around him in a new light. He looked back at Banner. Just how willingly was he involved in proceedings?

This could also mean that the red-head had some sort of ability as well, in theory. On the other hand, she was the only one dressed in the same uniform as other military personnel, so perhaps not. He looked back at the screen to realise that he'd missed the guy's response. Loki was now talking again.

"_Ooh. It burns you to have come so close, to have the Tesseract, to have power- unlimited power, and for what? A warm light for all of mankind to share? And then to be reminded what real power is._"

Harry frowned, Loki's words stirred something in the back of his mind, but he couldn't pinpoint what.

"_Well, let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something."_

Harry watched Fury leave the room, his mind whirring. Around him, the other room's occupants began to stir.

"He really grows on you doesn't he?" Banner said to the room at large looking about at his companions.

"Loki's going to draw this out so," the soldier drew his eyes from the screen to look through Harry at Thor. Even after all these years, the whole thing was somewhat unnerving, "Thor, what's his play?"

Thor continued to look out the window as he replied, "He has an army, called the Chitauri." He turned to look at the others, sparing Harry a glance as he went, "They are not of Asguard or of any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth, in return I expect for the Tesseract."

"An army. From out of space." Harry couldn't tell whether or not he was detecting cynicism in the soldiers' tone or not, but he himself found himself slightly shocked. But then again, what right does he, a figure who by muggle beliefs shouldn't exist, have to argue against aliens?

Banner took off his glasses and folded them up as he addressed his word to the soldier, who appeared to be the leader here, "He's building himself another portal. That's what he need Eric Selvig for." The doctor gestured towards Thor but the statement rang bells for Harry as well. Didn't Hermione ask him about an 'Eric'? what were the chances that this was the same man. Knowing his luck, higher than average.

Thor also perked up at the mention of the name, "Selvig?"

"He's an astrophysicist," Banner clarified.

"He's a friend," Thor countered.

"Loki has him under some form of mind control. Some kind of spell. Along with one of ours." The red head added. Mind control? Like the imperius curse? Or something to do with this twisting of nature he was here to investigate. However it was done then, it was even more 'unforgivable' than the mind curse. It's not as if he was aware of every time that particular spell was cast.

"I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here." The soldier cast a cursory glance around the room, to exaggerate his point. Which was a very good one.

"Look, I don't think you should be focussing on Loki." contributed Banner, "That guys brain is a bag of cats. You can smell crazy on him."

Harry let a wry grin cross his face, reminded for some inexorable reason of Mrs Figgs. Thor was less impressed though as he took an offended step forwards.

"Have care how you speak! Loki is beyond reason but he is of Asguard and he is my brother."

"He killed eighty people in two days," the redhead commented blandly, rolling her eyes to look up at Thor who thought for a moment before replying carefully.

"He's adopted."

"I think it's about the mechanics." Banner asserted, "Irridium. What do they need the irridium for?"

Movement caught Harry's eye and he froze as he saw Tony, complete with suit, saunter through the door and into the room, just in time to cut over Banners words.

"It's a stabilizing agent." Tony then turned his attention to the man next to him whom Harry recognised as Agent Coulson and muttered something to him about flying him somewhere. Coulson replied and Tony conceded that it was the other man's love life before he turned his attention back to the room at large. "Which he needs, so the portal wont collapse itself like it did as S.H.I.E.L.D."

He made a placating gesture at Thor, "No hard feelings big fella, you've got a mean swing." He pated the man on the arm before walking on. Harry had to move to avoid his friend as he strutted to the edge of the platform as he continued, "Also, means that the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants."

He gave an order to the people at the terminals and they stopped to look at him.

"That man is playing Gallagah!" he exclaimed, pointing to a man on the far side of the room. "Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did." He added at a lower volume, cavalierly eyeing the screens. Before frowning and covering one eye.

"How does Fury even see these?" He asked the agent to Harry's right, pointing to the screens closest to the covered eye.

"He turns." supplied the Agent in a matter of fact tone.

"Sounds exhausting."

Harry rolled his eyes, the whole thing was so typically Tony, the whole 'cock of the walk' attitude, commanding the attention of the room. Fury must be the man who'd been interviewing Loki.

He fiddled with something on the screens, not looking at the audience that he knew were hanging on to every word.

"The rest of the raw materials he can get his hands on, pretty easily. The only major component he needs is a power source of high energy density. Something to…" He clicked his fingers, "Kick start the cube."

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" the agent asked cynically.

"Last night." Tony replied and when he got a confused look he continued, "The packet. Selvig's notes. The extraction theory papers? Am I the only one who did the reading!?" He asked in disbelief of the room. Of course his serious demeanour wouldn't hold for long.

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" asked the soldier, having turned his charit to follow Tony as he strolled around the room.

It was Banner who answered however, still fiddling with his glasses, "He'd have to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million kelvin just to break through the cooling barrier."

Tony directed his 'that's-obvious-class-how-couldn't-you-know-that' attitude to the others and countered, "Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the Quantum tunnelling effect."

"Well if he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet." Banner replied, stepping in Tony's direction.

"Finally, "Tony exclaimed, striding towards Banner, "Someone who speaks English.", Holding out his hand for the other scientist to shake.

"Is that what just happened?" asked the soldier.

Harry was inclined to agree with him, he'd been lost the moment 'kelvin' had been brought in to the conversation. He took comfort in the fact that should he ever have to enter into a discussion in the uses of murtlap essence, Tony would be just as lost as he was.

"It's good to meet you Doctor, "Tony greeted, "Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into a enormous green rage monster."

Green rage monster? That was new, and obviously the reason for all of the sidelong looks from the red head.

Banner didn't seem to know quite what to make of Tony's words but settled on a "Thanks."

"Dr Banner is only here to check the cube." Stated the man from the interview, Fury, as he strode into the room. "I was hoping you might join him."

The two scientists looked at each other appraisingly while the soldier spoke,

"What about that stick? It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."

The stick had power, yes, but it wasn't anything like magic.

"I don't know about that, "Fury replied, "But it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

"Monkeys?" asked Thor, "I do not understand."

"I do!" exclaimed the soldier excitedly. The others exchanged glances while he shifted slightly. "I understood that reference."

"Shall we play doctor?" asked Tony.

Bruce nodded and gestured out the door Harry had come through, "This way sir."

Harry watched his friend leave the room, trying to decide what to do next. His decision was made for him as Thor stepped past him, muttering, "With me."

Harry followed him out of the room only to be shooed down a side corridor where threre weren't any people. The Asguardian turned on him.

"Do you not plan to reveal yourself?"

"Erm," Harry hadn't considered it. On one hand, he now knew that he had to stick around until they found the cube, in that he was useless. He could only track it through use and it was fairly dormant at the moment, just a faint prickling at the back of his mind. And point me spells were only good if you were in a close vicinity. He also wasn't looking forward to Tony finding out about his presence on board.

"There is nothing trustworthy about a man who hides in the shadows." Thor remarked, a brusqueness to his tone that didn't bode well for the man keeping his secret. Thor fixed his gaze a foot or so above Harry's head. Although not directly pointed at him, it had the desired effect. Plus it was probably better for him to reveal himself rather than have it done for him.

"Fine." Sighed Harry. "Lead the way."

A triumphant grin spread across Thor's face as he bowed his head and brushed past Harry back onto the bridge. He paused before entering the room to remove his cloak; there was no need for him to pull an appearing act, no point in unduly startling the armed soldiers; and tucked it away.

He was hidden by Thor's bulk as the Asgardian spoke to the room beyond.

"We have another ally in the search for the Tesseract."

Thor half-turned to look back at Harry, still smiling. Now that he was visible, was incredibly conscious of how diminutive he was compared to the big man. As predicted, the military personnel, basically the agent and the red head had their weapons out. The soldier came to his feet in surprise, his body tensed for action. His eyes widened in recognition after a moment and his mouth opened in an 'o' of surprise. Coulson had the least obvious reaction, surprise appearing on his face only temporarily before being replaced by what looked like self-satisfaction before that was in turn was covered by an impassive neutral expression.

"Wha- You're Stark's friend!"

Harry gave an awkward wave, "Yeah, that's me. Nice to see you again."

"How'd you get on the carrier." Spat the red head, her weapon still trained on Harry.

"Uhm-"

"How about," Coulson smoothly overrode whatever answer Harry was going to formulate, "we page the others. I think Stark especially will want to hear this. You can lower your weapons."

The women did, albeit hesitantly while the soldier remained standing.

"Please do take a seat." Coulson gestured towards the table, before speaking into his earpiece, summoning Stark, Banner and Fury to the bridge.

Harry knew what was coming, but that didn't make him any less nervous as he waited for Tony to show up. He didn't think that the man would take kindly to finding out that his friend had kept such a massive thing from him for the past few months. Tony was his friend, the only one to reach out to him once he'd essentially isolated himself. He hadn't known him as long as say, Hermione or Ron, but he really liked him what with his snarky wit and eccentric personality. And now this fundamental secret risked destroying everything. But he needed to get to the Tesseract and this was the best option all around. Hopefully he and Tony could work past it, Merlin knows Tony was stubborn enough to get to know Harry, the least he deserved in return was the same persistence to keep it going.

It suddenly hit him that while he considered Tony a friend, he was just another person to watch grow old and sooner or later die. And that's how it would always be. Feeling like he'd been punched in the stomach, he contemplated anew his immortality and the relationships that he could form, all of the ups and downs and the futility of them. It had hurt enough to lose his friends in the war, could he really stand doing the same for the rest of his abnormal life?

On the other hand, what if he adapted? Got used to losing those he loved. What sort of monster would he be, to look upon the loss of life with indifference?

While Harry wallowed, the silence in the room was deafening, no one moving as they waited for the summoned. Too soon, the door slid open.

"Honestly, we're not miracle workers- well I am, but even Moses would be pushed to... Harry?"

Harry stiffened and turned to look at his friend.

"Hey Tony. What are the chances?" the words slipped out a moment before Harry realised that blasé probably wasn't the best tactic at the moment.

"What's going on?" Tony asked tersely, his glancing at Coulson, "Why were you brought here?"

Harry opened his mouth to answer when the soldier cut across him.

"Actually I'm under the impression that he brought himself here."

Tony's brow crinkled into a frown, "What...?"

Harry decided to break in here. "I have talents, Tony, and I want to find out what happened to my friend." He wasn't happy with his wording, but if he could sidestep around the whole 'society of magical people' thing, it would be better, at least less illegal.

"Talents." The word fell heavily, "Like what?" There was a hardness to Tony's tone that didn't bode well.

For some reason, the word magic was hard to say, especially surrounded by all of these people. Harry hadn't found himself so tongue tied since he'd tried to ask Cho to the Yule ball. The secrecy of magic had been ingrained in him, over many years, and here he was trying to tell a room of strangers and Tony about it.

Tony took the silence that accompanied his internal struggle as unwillingness to talk and sighed, instead he looked at Coulson.

"A well connected PI's parlour tricks can't stand up to Loki. I'd suggest you take him back. He's no use to S.H.I.E.L.D."

Harry frowned. The Tony he knew would usually be pestering him for the truth at this point, not dismissing him. And then he realised, 'no use to S.H.I.E.L.D', he was trying to protect him from this military body that had so far rounded up five of the most powerful muggles in the world. But Tony didn't seem to think that whatever Harry was capable of would be helpful in the grand scheme of things, otherwise he would have considered letting him help. As it was, he probably thought that Harry could just appa... teleport, looking at his ability to show up on the other side of the world all too quickly.

"On the contrary, a Warlock could turn the tide of battle against Loki." Thor interjected, either defending him or possibly fed up with Harry's impression of a mute. He couldn't tell.

The room did a double take,

"I'm sorry, a what?" the soldier sputtered, "A warlock?"

Banner scoffed while Tony snorted.

"I actually call myself a wizard."

Harry's words were quiet but cut through the others disbelief. Suddenly all of their attention was back on Harry. There was a pause before,

"You're serious."

Harry met Tony's eyes and nodded, "I wouldn't joke about this. Not now."

"Can you prove it?"

Harry tore his gaze from Tony's enquiring, hurt eyes to look at the redhead who eyed him suspiciously.

Possibilities flitted through Harry's mind and settled on flicking his fingers in mimicry of the wand movement and murmured,

"Incendio."

A flame alit upon his fingers, hovering over his palm and the other occupants reared back in surprise, or shifted, if they had a good poker face. The redhead's hand twitched towards her weapon. He didn't look at Tony, instead focussing on the flame before extinguishing it. He continued to stare at where the flame had been until,

"Can you just conjure flames? Or is there other stuff." Scepticism was retained in Banners's voice. Of course, he was in a room of super powered people, who's to say there wasn't one out there that could create flame, it didn't necessarily mean magic.

He looked around but saw nothing that wasn't well secured down, or safe to levitate in a cramped space with so many people. He was tempted to try transfiguration, but that was never his strong suit and unfortunately he'd never learnt Hermione's nifty bird-making trick. Not to mention, it had to be something that couldn't be passed off as a random super power. He could try his animagus, but that would leave him having to explain about phoenix's. He stood slowly.

"Okay, so just, remember, it won't hurt you." And before any of them could speak he raised his hand. He thought about introducing Tony to all of his friends, everything out in the open.

"Expecto Patronum."

The silver stag erupted from his hand, landing lightly on the floor in front of him. It rolled it's head, looking around as it stood amongst them all in resplendent silver.

Nobody spoke for a moment, and it was the soldier who broke the silence.

"What is it?"

Harry stroked the patronus' flank, as it wasn't carrying a message, it was perfectly tangible and answered the soldier.

"A patronus is the embodiment of a happy thought or memory. It's for protection," he nearly mentioned the messages, but stopped himself when he realised that that would imply that there were others to send messages to. He refrained from motioning Dementors for much the same reason.

Banner stepped forward, holding his palm out, as one would do when approaching a horse. The stag nuzzled Banners palm and the man smiled gently,

"It's beautiful." He murmured as the stag dissolved, the light fading.

"So what, magic's real?" the soldier tried to clarify.

"They say that magic is merely science we don't understand yet." Tony contributed. Was his tone actually sullen, or was Harry just projecting?

"That's all very well," the soldier stood, asserting his leadership, "but these... tricks, can they be used in battle? Not to mention, no offence meant Mr Evans, but you look a little young to be involved in such a fight."

There was a small scoff from Tony's corner accompanied by something that sounded like, "Pot meet Kettle," while a door slid open and Director Fury stood on the threshold. His eye took in the scene before him, and settled on Harry.

A smile more akin to a smirk graced his mouth, "Ah, Mr Potter. How good of you to join us."

* * *

Harry stiffened at hearing his surname, eyeing Fury warily even as a handful of the others started in surprise.

"You were expecting me." Harry noted, trying to portray none of the unsettlement that was roiling in his gut.

"Potter? I thought his name was Evans." questioned the soldier as he looked between Harry and Fury. Tony didn't comment but continued to watch the scene impassively, quiet for the first time that Harry had known him.

"You are younger than I expected." Fury commented offhandedly, and Harry had to catch his surprise before it shown on his face.

"How do you know me?"

Fury let a small half smile cross his lips before he answered wryly, "What kind of Intelligence expert would I be if I didn't recognise the Chosen One of the Wizarding World?"

Well that's his attempt at a degree of subtlety dead. On cue, the others in the room began to speak.

"Chosen one?"

"Wizarding _World_?"

And the more simple exclamation: "What?"

Fury silenced hem as he spoke again. "While this has been a nice diversion, I don't believe that we have time to address the topic now. We need to find the Tesseract, so get to it. Potter, with me." And with that, Fury dismissed the room, leaving with a bemused Harry in his wake.

Harry shot a glance backwards at the rooms occupants, all of whom were staring at him with different levels of interest and defensiveness. Tony was leaning against the far wall, arms crossed, staring at him as though he were a new problem to solve.

"You enjoyed that." Harry shot at Fury upon entering a room that must have been Fury's office. Fury walked behind his desk and raised an eyebrow at Harry, who scoffed.

"Yeah, don't give me the eyebrow. I know your type; outwardly impassive while laughing at everyone on the inside. So what was the point in that? What did you gain?"

Fury put his palms on his desk and leaned forward.

"You can be useful. They needed to know that and as you strike an unassuming persona, they needed to know that quickly. The great war is a bit too large a kettle of fish to be tackling at this stage of the operation."

Harry had to concede, the move made sense, but it left him with a major mess to clear up.

"What about the Statute? As a muggle in the know, you just broke the law."

"I'll square it with your Minister." Fury stated as he straightened. "Is that all?"

It took a beat for Harry to process the man's sheer confidence that he'd be able to gloss the whole thing over with Kingsley, as well as the basic concept of the man _knowing_ Kingsley to that extent before he answered.

"No. All that's left is to find the Tesseract. Loki's locked up, you have the staff. You have the means to find the device and settle the matter. Why am I so important?"

Harry knew why he wanted to be there, but he needed to know why Fury wanted him, especially enough to out him.

Fury looked at him, "What do you think?"

Harry sighed, "I think that capturing Loki was too easy."

Fury nodded. "My men are still under his thrall. It's never over that quickly."

Harry nodded and received a small device that Fury held out for him. It was one of the earpieces that the others were wearing.

"I need to talk to Loki."

Fury nodded.

"Hermione Weasley," Harry started, watching for a flicker of recognition. It was hidden, but Harry was not disappointed, "The artefact she was examining, it was the Tesseract wasn't it. She mentioned Eric Selvig."

Fury nodded.

"What happened?"

Fury gestured towards the door," I suggest that you talk to Agent Coulson for details on that matter Mr Potter, these are busy times and I have matters I must attend to."

Harry accepted the dismissal and left the room, nodding at Fury as he did so before walking away to assess what he knew.

Fury wasn't telling him everything, that was for sure, but on the other side of the scale, Harry wasn't telling him everything either; like how he planned to destroy the staff and most likely the Tesseract when the time came. Then again, he was expecting Harry to show up, so maybe he was... no, it must be his connections to Tony that had alerted Fury to his presence. The only other thing connecting him to the case was the staff's effect on Death and the natural order, which Fury couldn't possibly know of.

As the former Head Auror, he knew the importance of a functioning team and the decisions the leader had to make and for that reason, he was hesitant to just blast his way through Fury to find out what he needed, and risk messing up the entire affair and so he was happy to follow Fury's direction until it suited him to do otherwise or Fury gave him a reason not to. Harry knew Fury would know that, and had seen firsthand what Fury had prepared for one he didn't feel that he could control.

Harry came to a halt beside a door. His gut told him that this was where Loki was stashed and he was inclined to agree with it. He walked into the door's sensors and it swept open, letting him into the room he saw earlier on screen. He spared a quick towards the camera in question before looking at the God.

Loki was staring at Harry with a strange smile on his face.

"Warlock." He acknowledged, with a tilt of the head."

"Murderer." Harry returned, casting a quick Muffliato once Loki was in range.

Loki's eyes twinkled, "It's not murder if it's cattle."

"You remind me of someone I knew." Harry remarked casually, "Powerful, in control, criminally insane. He's dead now. I killed him."

"Interesting attempt at power play," Loki conceded, nodding, "but completely useless. We both know where the real power is."

"The staff, right?" Harry checked, not waiting for Loki to respond before continuing, "It's not _your _power though. Is it? Where did you get it?"

Loki didn't answer but continued to observe Harry.

"You see what I think," Harry continued, "What I think is that someone gave you that power. I think that if they find out what is going on down here, they won't be happy. Trust me when I say that the price dealt out by someone with that much power... well you can see how that'll go. On your own, you won't stand a chance,"

Loki sat forward, a sly grin on his face, "And what about the price for your power Warlock?"

Harry allowed a ghost of a smile to cross his lips even as his stomach clenched, "You can call me Potter."

He regarded Loki for a moment longer but felt only traces of the Tesseract energy clinging to him, probably a connection to the staff. Having hopefully given the man food for thought, and recognising that he wouldn't get anything out of the god without resorting to other methods of persuasion, he nodded good day, cancelled the spell and walked from the room. Outside, he tried to figure out what to do next. He was right in his suppositions, he knew it. The Chitauri didn't sound like more than foot soldiers, and something about Loki screamed 'pawn', though Harry couldn't place his finger on what_._

He walked the corridors back to the original lab with the staff, figuring correctly that that was where he would find Banner and by extension Tony, who had at some point found time to change out of his suit. When he came to the door, they were deep at work, words from a conversation just ended hanging between them. The tension was palpable.

"Ah, Mr Evans, or should I say Potter?" Tony quipped with a flourish when he saw Harry, "Good of you to join us."

Harry nodded and murmured a quick "Hi" to Banner who nodded in acknowledgement before ducking back into his work, his eyes flicking between Harry and Tony at regular intervals.

"So, a wizard." Tony stated, looking at Harry.

"Yep."

"A real, God-honest, wand twirling, broom riding wizard."

"We have robes too."

Tony let out a bark of laughter which grew, setting Harry off. That was when Harry knew that he and Tony were still friends, despite the lie.

Tony quietened into a deep chuckle as he looked at Harry, "So there's a whole world of you? Oh I know, is every Brit secretly a wizard?"

Harry shook his head, "We're all over the world, but there's not actually that many of us. The wizard:muggle ratio is more than slightly weighted."

"Muggles?"

Tony peppered Harry with questions as he and Banner continued working, mostly about the basics of the wizarding world that had amazed Harry when he'd first been introduced to it. None of the questions were too personal which Harry noted; realising that it be would be a long time before Tony's curiosity was truly sated. As it was, Tony's questions were backed by a scientist's pure fascination with something hitherto unexplored. Banner too let his curiosity get the better of him, and was soon as involved in the discussion as Tony.

"There are all sorts of magical creatures," Harry found himself saying half an hour later, "Probably just as many breeds as there are Muggle I would imagine. Centaurs. Hippogriffs. Grindylows."

"Are you sure that you're not just making up words." Tony piped up.

Harry smiled, "A Hippogriff has the head of a bird and the rear of a horse. Grindalows are spindly creatures that lurk in bodies of water and drag people to their watery graves. Then there are Boggarts or Blast Ended Skrewts, Bowtruckles and hundreds more that I don't know. A friend of mine once bought Flesh-Eating Slug Repellent and I still haven't figured out whether it repels flesh-eating slugs or whether it repels slugs by eating their flesh."

"What about the more conventional mythical creatures?" Banner asked while Tony sputtered over the concept of flesh eating slugs."

"Well I mentioned, Centaurs. There are also Giants, Dragons, Trolls, and Vampires. Not to mention Werewolves. "

"Have you ever met any?" Asked Banner the excitement of new discovery tinging his voice.

"Well, the forests at my school had I believe the largest herd of centaur in the UK, and I ran into them a couple of times, one of them actually became a teacher at one point. A troll was released at Halloween once and attacked a friend of mine. I was set up against a Hungarian Horntail once in the Tournament, that's a breed of dragon… Most of my interactions with vampires happened when I was with the Aurors…" He suddenly realised that if he spoke too much of his time after he left Hogwarts then they would notice the age discrepancy. "And, uh, I've met several werewolves. My old professor and a good friend was one."

"You were friends with your teacher? Nerd." Tony snorted.

Harry recalled tales of the Marauders and smiled ruefully, "I think you'd have liked him."

"So people don't care that they turn into wolves?" Banner asked, curiously.

It suddenly occurred to Harry why Banner was taking this line of questioning.

"Not completely." Harry told the scientist honestly. "There were some pretty nasty Anti-Werewolf Legislations and a fair degree of prejudice amongst some groups and it can be difficult for them to get jobs. My friend, the one I'm here for was involved in overturning several of the unfair laws and fighting for the rights of Half-Breeds all over the UK. The Minister of Magic is very pro such movements at the moment, so is most of the country. Anything to rebel against Voldemort's regime."

"Okay, so everything you say at the moment brings up at least a dozen more questions." Tony informed him while Banner mulled Harry's words over, "So I've decided that the easiest thing to do is make a list and tackle each thing once at a time. You mentioned a school?"

Harry nodded, "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Speaks for itself. It's the British Magic Academy, but there are others all over the world.

"What sort of name is Hogwarts?" Tony snorted.

Harry shrugged, "You'd have to ask the founders. Or Hermione." He added as an afterthought figuring that the answer was probably somewhere in 'Hogwarts: A History'.

"What about the Dragon Tournament."

"Ah, that's between three Wizard Schools. Each has a champion and they go through three trials to win the cup which comes with money and great prestige." Harry pushed aside the flash of green light and Cedric's dead eyes as he forced a smile. "Hogwarts hosted it for the first time after a century. It'd been cancelled because too many champions died."

"You have to wonder why when they pit you against dragons." Banner commented wryly, "So you were one of the three champions?"

Harry grinned with a nonchalance he didn't feel. "Nah, I was the controversial forth."

Tony chuckled, "Always a rebel then?"

"You've no idea."

A computer beeped and Tony's head jerked in the direction of the noise. Banner in turn looked towards the screen nearest the sceptre making his way towards it even as Tony reached the device and began tapping at the screen.

"What's going on?"

"I put a bug on Fury's system." Tony explained, eyes not leaving the screen. "There's something he's not telling us."

Banner left his monitor with a nod of confirmation and went around the desk to Tony's side.

* * *

Fury marched into the room a few minutes later to find the two scientists still there while Harry perched on the desk next to them.

"What are you doing Mr Stark?"

"Uhm, "Tony prevaricated, "Kinda been wondering the same thing about you."

Fury's expression if possible became even less impressed.

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract."

"We are." Banner chipped in, "The model's locked and we're scanning for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile."

"Yeah, we'll get your cube back. No muss. No fuss."

Harry looked away from the screen in question as Tony's beeped.

"What is Phase 2?"

Harry noticed the soldier he now knew to be called Rodgers enter the room, carrying something he likened to a large gun. He placed it heavily on the table.

"Phase 2 is S.H.I.E.L.D uses the cube to make weapons." He looked over at Tony, "Sorry the computers were moving a little slow for me."

"We gathered everything related to the Tesseract," Fury started to placate Rodgers, "it does not mean-"

"I'm sorry Nick." Tony swivelled the screen, "What were you lying?"

"I was wrong Director," Rodgers asserted as Thor and Romanov entered the room, "The world hasn't changed a bit."

"Did you know about this?" Banner asked of Romanov, gesturing to the weapons. Harry slid to his feet as he felt the tensions rising in the room.

"You want to think about removing yourself from this environment Doctor?" the Agent asked condescendingly in Harrys opinion. It was more likely to get Banners back up than calm him. He looked round to Banner who chuckled.

"I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed."

"Loki is manipulating you."

"And you've been doing what exactly?"

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes-"

Harry found himself in-between them and could see where this was going.

"Look bickering won't help anyone."

"I'm not leaving because she'd getting a little twitchy." Banner asserted and Harry accepted this. "What I want to know is why S.H.I.E.L.D is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

His eyes flickered between Fury and Romanov. Harry stepped back, unsure of whether to meddle in muggle affairs here. He was on unfamiliar ground here; a Wizard's weapon was more often than not his wand, how dangerous it was depended on how skilled you were with it. Dangerously enchanted objects influence weren't as wide spread as was suggested by the term mass destruction, and he'd been somewhat detached by muggle politics, even during his recent emersion in their world.

The silence was held for a moment before he raised an arm and pointed it at Thor with the damning words "Because of him."

Thor looked startled, "Me?"

"Last year earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that nearly levelled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously outgunned."

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet." Thor interjected.

"But you're not the only people out there are you? And you're not the only threat. Your war," He directed his gaze at Harry, "Killed nearly as many humans as it did your kind. If not more. And we couldn't do anything to defend ourselves." Harry stiffened, also noting the implication that he wasn't _human_.

"We did what we could." He retorted.

"What you could wasn't good enough. Your government toppled at the first sign of opposition and it was the rest of the world that suffered, for the whole merry year during which you vanished." He didn't leave Harry time to respond before ploughing on. "The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, that can't be controlled."

"Like you controlled the cube?" Rodgers questioned.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it and his allies. It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war."

Rodgers looked at Thor in shock, "A higher form?"

"You forced our hand. We had to come up with something-"

"A nuclear deterrent." Tony cut across Fury's argument, sounding unimpressed, "cause that always calms everything right down."

"Remind me again how you made your fortune Stark?" Fury directed at Tony. He was obviously getting riled up if he was getting personal with the jibes.

"I'm sure that if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep."

"I'm sorry how is this now about me?"

"I'm sorry isn't everything?"

Blood was rising, everybody getting worked up. This was what Loki wanted. Harry pushed down the bile that had risen at Fury's comment regarding the war and tried to calm himself, but the annoyance was catching and it was tricky.

"I thought humans were more evolved than this." Thor remarked to Fury who closed his eyes and drew in a breath before rounding on Thor,

"Excuse me! Did we go to your planet and blow stuff up?"

In a matter of moments the room had detiorated into a mass of bickering. Each person with a strong personality and own way of doing things, thrown together and told to play nice, none of which willing to completely share the reigns.

Unease was rising within Harry and he wasn't entirely sure if it was the situation. Death had materialised beside the sceptre and raised an eyebrow at Harry who shot him a look back. He shrugged and bent to examine the sceptre and Harry turned his attention back to the fighters.

"Shut up!" he shouted over the others, who seemed not to hear him.

"Sonorus." He muttered before bellowing, "SHUT UP!"

That got their attention.

"Quietus." Harry muttered as the others stared at him. "Trust me when I say fighting doesn't help. It just causes chaos and if we want to beat him we need to work together."

"For all he speaks of control, he _causes_ chaos." Thor stated, looked at Fury.

"That's his MO isn't it?" asked Banner, drawing the room's gazes. He ploughed on, "I mean what are we, a team? Ah, no no no. We're a chemical mixture that _makes_ chaos. We're- we're a time bomb."

"You, need to step away." Fury walked towards Banner.

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony asked nonchalantly, placing his hand on Rodger's shoulder only to have it batted away.

"You know damn well why! Back off!"

Tony met Rodgers glare, "Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me."

Rodgers circled Tony, "Oh yeah, the big man in a suit of armour." Harry watched warily, knowing that Tony could handle himself. "Take that off, what are you?" Rodgers challenged.

"Genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist." Tony riposted. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Romanov acknowledge the statement.

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you." Rodgers continued, "I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself." Harry gritted his teeth on Tony's behalf while his friends face remained blank. "You're not one to make the suicide play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

Harry was brought back to the forest, with Voldemort's quavering voice, the hateful eyes and the green light. Rodgers didn't know Tony. Beneath his brash exterior, Tony cared. Harry could see him dying for people, especially ones he cared about, like Pepper. It's one of the reasons he stopped making weapons and donned the suit himself. Even so Tony would probably come up with option number three if he could.

"I'd rather just cut the wire." Tony confirmed Harry's thoughts.

Rodgers smirked as if he'd proved a point, "Always a way out. You know you may not be a threat but you'd better stop pretending to be a hero."

Harry took a step forward and opened his mouth to protest but Tony beat him to it.

"A hero. Like you, you mean? You're a laboratory experiment. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."

The niggling feeling was increasing in the back of Harry's mind, like an annoying buzzing that wouldn't settle. He shook it off as they continued to square off against each other.

"Put on the suit. Let's go a few rounds."

Next to him, Thor started a deep throated laugh, "You people are so petty. And tiny." He added as an afterthought.

"Yeah, this is a team." muttered Banner behind Harry as Fury ordered Romanov to escort Banner from the room.

"Where?" Banner asked, "You rented my room."

Fury began to defend the cage as Harry remembered with a sickened feeling that it had been meant for Banner. He'd known that before, but now that he had gotten to know the man, and his genuine curiosity, the whole thing seemed more barbaric. Like executing a hippogriff for being provoked.

"In case you needed to kill me!" Banner asserted, "But you can't, I know, I tried."

Harry felt the room freeze and direct their attention on Banner, even Tony's bravado deflating. He took in their gazes and ploughed on, "I got low, I didn't see an end, so I put a bullet through my mouth and the Other Guy spit it out. So I moved on. I focussed on helping other people, I was good."

A cold nugget rested in Harry's belly. He understood to some degree the feeling of hopelessness, of not seeing an end. Maybe he didn't turn into a monster, but he still feared his connection with Death, on some level. But any thoughts of escape were futile so he focussed on doing what he could to help people with his experience, just like Banner. Could the other man simply not die by outside means? Or had he stopped aging as well? Had Harry found someone in the same boat as him?

"Until you dragged me into this freak show and put everyone here at risk." He looked at Romanov, "You wanted to know my secret Agent Romanov, you want to know how I stay calm."

The room shifted, those with weapons reaching for them, except Harry who remained where he stood ready to react if need be but willing to give the man before him the benefit of the doubt.

"Dr Banner," Rodgers murmured, "Put the sceptre down."

Banner looked at the device as if he hadn't even noticed that he'd picked it up. He looked back up to the group, a questioning look in his gaze when a beep sounded across the room.

The tension broke.

"We got it." Fury stated while Banner placed the sceptre back on the table and walked over to the console.

"Sorry kids, you don't get to see my party trick after all."

"You've located the Tesseract." Thor asserted while watching Banner check the screen.

Bickering started up again, Thor stating that the cube belonged on Asguard while Tony and Rodgers argued about who could get there faster. Harry realised that Thor may have a problem with Harry's plan to somehow destroy the Tesseract- he was currently toying with the idea of tossing it through the Veil in a curse box- but then again, if it was pure energy, was it safe to have it floating around whatever realm lay on the other side, or would it be possible to destroy in the first instance?

Rodgers reissued his challenge and Tony, being Tony didn't back down.

A quiet exclamation from Banner drew Harry's attention.

"Oh my god."

The Helicarrier shook and a mushroom of fire erupted in the centre of the room , throwing Harry into a metal table while crashes and yells echoed around him.

* * *

He lay there for a moment before raising himself on his elbows to look around . Tony and Rodgers who hadn't been as close to the explosion were already up.

"Put on the suit."

He watched the two scramble from the room as he too stood, assessing the damage, while he listened to Fury and Hill on the Comms. Fury left the room, as did Thor, leaving Harry by himself in the wrecked lab. Wait, that wasn't right. Where were Banner and Romanov? He glanced around and saw a shattered window. He strode up to it and looked through it. He glanced down and saw that a section of mesh floor and fallen through, beneath which he could make out the fiery red hair of the S.H.E.I.L.D agent in question. She didn't appear to be moving.

Avoiding any particularly sharp shards of glass he manoeuvred himself through the window and perched on the edge of the hole.

"Agent Romanov, are you okay?"

She looked up at him, which was a relief but her gaze didn't linger for longer than a moment before it darted back down to something beyond Harry's field of vision.

"I'm fine, but trapped. Dr Banner…"

Harry was through had slid through the whole in a moment, using a quiet _arresto momentum_ to ensure that he didn't land to hard. He came to a crouch next to the Agent, turning his head to follow her gaze towards where Banner was.

The man had his back to them, his head in his hands, trembling.

"Dr Banner, it's okay."

Romanov tried to calm the man, but Harry could hear the underlying fear in the woman's voice as she pulled at the cylinder trapping her leg. Harry put his hand in her shoulder to still her before raising a couple of fingers and exercising the unforgettable swish and flick. As he muttered the incantation, the cylinder rose and the agent pulled her leg free. She stared at him for a moment as he lowered it to the ground, before her eyes flicked back to Bruce.

A growl came from Bruce's direction and Harry turned to see the man start to grow, his spine becoming more prominent as it pressed against his shirt.

"Go," Harry told Romanov without looking at her, "Help the others, I'll keep him occupied."

Romanov murmured in assent and left Harry's side. Before him, Banner turned his head and Harry could see the virulent green seeping into his eyes, masking the sorrow in the man's expression. It was dangerous to interfere with magical transformations, so Harry felt reluctant to try and jinx the man as he expanded, ripping his shirt to shreds, revealing the green skin beneath.

Adrenaline pumped through Harry, more than it had in a long time, as he faced the creature, slipping his wand into his hand. It didn't notice him at first, looking around and taking in its surroundings before it lumbered about and saw Harry.

Remembering a time long since gone when he'd faced a mountain troll he pointed his wand, "Stupefy!"

The red light shot at the creature and dispersed over its green mass. It had no apparent effect aside from angering the creature as it snarled and began to charge. Harry backed away, keeping his wand pointed towards what was once Banner. What did he know about the Other Guy?

He fired a couple of distracting spells at the Guy, to keep him occupied, allowing Harry to avoid the thing and think. Spells didn't affect it, making what he was doing no more than a pretty light show. Bullets didn't work either, according to Banner, the Other Guy had spat out a bullet to the brain, so it could probably survive anything. Even then, he didn't want to risk hurting Banner.

Harry had to leap to the side as Banners fist narrowly missed him, landing winded next to a pile of crates. A voice was speaking in his ear, but he tuned it out as he scrambled out of the way of the creature. A dragon's hide was resistant to spells. Cedric had gotten around that by going for a weak spot, its eyes. Anywhere not protected by its hide was vulnerable.

Spells that affected the body wouldn't be viable in this situation. So… Having reviewed his repertoire he knew which was one of the only spells that would affect the mind directly, which was why it was considered illegal. He thought of all the people on the ship, and how they were at risk if Banner continued, Bellatrix's words echoing in his mind, "_You have to want it…" _

He wanted to protect those people.

"Imperio."

He felt the spell rush down his arm, connecting him to Banner. Harry hadn't used this spell since the war, his main experience with it being during the Gringotts break in. But even he could tell that something was different with Banner's mind. The Other Guy had a mind of its own, an oversimplified but resistant one. He could also sense Banners, pushed to the fringes, only occasionally flickering from dormancy. He focussed his efforts on the dominant mind, creating a mantra of "_Sleep, go to sleep"_. The creature shook its head as if to rid its self of an annoying fly and AHrry recognised attempts to throw the control off. He put more pressure behind the instruction and it stumbled, but it didn't seem to be enough. Harry needed more, which was when he realised that the elder wand was still strapped to his arm. He pulled on the natural power granted by the Hallow and layered it through the spell he was already casting.

The creature came to a halt and fell to his knees. Its eyes rolled up into its head and it fell to the floor with a sizable crash. Harry found himself staring at Banner's Hyde, breathing hard. Drawing upon the energy of the wand without it actually being in his hand was always trickier and that was no simple spell. He was wondering how long he'd have to keep the control up when suddenly the figure began to change. Before his eyes, the Other Guy shrunk and drained of colour, leaving Banner in his place.

The man's clothes had been shredded and what remained did nothing for the man's dignity so Harry conjured a blanket, a rich red with gold trim- old habits die hard, and lay it over the other man. He also shrugged off his jacket, enlarged it slightly and placed it next to the man for when he awoke, figuring that it was better than nothing.

It the moments of calm, he became suddenly aware of the niggling that had been growing for a while now. After placing a couple of protection charms over Banner lest anyone unsavoury trip over him, he followed the ominous feeling. He ran through the complex and came to a storage room, near control and found Romanov, standing over an unconscious man, looking down on him and breathing hard.

She looked up when he entered, immediately on guard. She relaxed slightly when she saw Harry.

"Banner?"

"He's fine. Who's this?" He gestured to the man who he identified as the source for the irritation.

"Agent Barton." Romanov replied shortly. Death was standing by her shoulder examining the man with a bemused expression on his face.

"Do you mind if I-" He gestured to the man. Romanov watched him warily but shook her head. Her eyes never leaving him, he knelt by the man and thumbed open an eyelid. The iris was glowing electric blue.

"Now that's not right." muttered Death.

Harry hummed in reply and looked back at Romanov, "Did he say anything before you knocked him out." When she shook her head he continued, "Right I may be able to do something, I'll have to wake him up first but bear with me."

He then turned to Barton and pulled out the Elder Wand.

"Enervate," he muttered and the man's eyes flickered open. Before they could properly focus Harry cast his next spell.

"Legilimens."

* * *

And like that he was in Barton's mind. Images threw themselves at him, Natasha, missions, the Archery range, the Circus. Harry delved through all of these, trying to ignore them and focus on the poison that ran through the man's mind.

He soon found what he was looking for; a blue parasite nestled deep within him. Contrary to what he had originally though, it wasn't so much that the sceptre had infected Barton, but that it had taken part of him; which was why he had retained a sense of self but changed allegiance. This was unlike the Imperious which took controlled their will. It's impossible however to completely separate only part of a person from themselves without their conscious decision to do so, i.e. Horcruxes – even the Dementors took all or nothing rather than trying to split the soul- and so the sceptre had rooted part of itself here to keep the connection alive.

To give it a physical description would be to liken it to an electric blue human nerve coiled around a distorted silver elastic, pulling it through its centre away to its original core while the nerve endings were latched to the tissue the elastic was drawn from.

"That's just wrong that is." Death commented from Harry's figurative elbow. "Pretty much on a par with making 'orcruxes, except worse, 'cause you're forcing it on someone else, rather than inflicting it on y'self."

Harry nodded, "What do I do?"

"Uproot the leech and coax the soul back to its vessel. The second part shouldn' be too 'ard. It wants to be 'ere."

Harry nodded and started trying to figure out how Death meant. He wasn't using his magic at this point, but some other power that came with the Hallows and Death's guidance. Bind by bind he detached the unnatural structure from its grip and watched it slip away, fading to the distance, back to the sceptre from whence it came. As it was, once the grip had been released the soul flowed back to its home and Harry flew from the man's mind.

He found himself once more crouched by the man's side, his muscles stiff, though he could not have been in there long, judging by Romanov who was exactly where he'd left her.

The blue had fled Barton's eyes, returning to their natural green before flickering closed. Harry sat back, to gather himself after an extended and unfamiliar use of the Hallows.

"What did you do?" breathed Romanov.

Harry pushed himself to his feet, "I released him from Loki's hold. He'll need to rest, It wasn't exactly pleasant." He gestured to her comm, "Any news on the battle? How long was I out of it?"

"Maybe a minute, slightly more," her eyes were back on Barton, "He'll be ok?"

Harry nodded.

"Go." She said, "I'll deal with him, you go see if you can help."

Harry nodded and left swiftly. Wait, Loki. In all this confusion, he'd be trying to escape. Harry ran to the cage room. The doors were already open, but he came to a halt at the sight before him. Thor was pressed to the glass staring at Loki who was by the control panel facing off against Coulson who was toting a huge gun.

"Even I don't know what it does," he was saying.

Loki seemed to shift, a shade of him appearing behind Coulson, empty, invisible and intangible. Harry spotted the sceptre in Loki's hand and knew what Loki was about to do. Before Loki could complete his teleport, he flicked his wand and cast the first battle spell that came to mind.

_Sectumsempra_

He felt the energy from the spell fly across the room, make contact with Loki… and rebound. Loki had seen in coming and raised the sceptre in defence. It reacted with the spell and caused it to expand across the room. He felt a searing pain across his chest, and everything went black.

* * *

Thor yelled in distress as gouges spread across the room, cutting the metal, the grill, scratching the glass and the flesh of his teammates. He saw the warlock crumple, his life flickering as blood seeped from him. The mantle of centuries dimmed and faded. Just like that, a person who must have seen so much history was dead. The Son of Coul was fairing little better. He'd collapsed against the metal side, blood seeping from a multitude of cuts. He was alive but did not have long for this world.

He barely paid attention as Loki, his _brother_ flicked the switch and sent him tumbling, trapped in a glass box, through the sky.

* * *

**A/N **

**I'm afraid I have no idea when I can next update, but I know where this story is going, so it's just a matter of finding typing time. I know some of you aren't fans of long chapters, but there was nowhere in here that I wanted to break and still have chapters of a decent length. The next one shouldn't be nearly as long. **


	7. Two Funerals and a Battle

**A/N Compared to my last chapter, this is short, despite the delay in posting. No Excuses, truth be told, I'm having difficulty writing at the moment. In response to those who have commented that what I am writing is just The Avengers with Harry stuck in, that is true to a degree, he is changing somethings, maybe not drastically, yet. This story is mainly going to focus on what's going to happen after the Assembled movie is over. Speaking of which, I've stumbled into a complication in what I had planned. I'm afraid I have no idea when I'm going to untangle this difficulty but I'll try to update up to that point sooner rather than later.**

**I feel I must also say that I am bowled over by the response so far, I am feeling truly guilty for not being able to provide better updates, but I will continue to plough on. Happy New Year.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

Steve and Stark exchanged glances and grinned to each other over the bodies of the men now lying between them as the all clear sounded over their comms.

"Cutting it a bit close there, eh?" Stark said as Steve slid down the ladder to stand next to him. Steve grinned and prepared to reply when Fury's voice came through the earpiece.

"Coulson and Potter are down. "

The grin froze on Starks face.

"We'll send a medical team to your location." came the voice of a faceless controller over the comms.

"They're here." Fury replied. "They called it."

There was a moment of silence, the ugly feeling that always accompanied the loss of a fellow soldier settling in Steve's gut. He snatched a glance at Stark, he knew that the man was close to Potter, but his face was unreadable.

"Initiative to Control."

They walked in silence down the wreckage of corridors that led to the control room. It could have been worse, Steve noted. At least they were still in the air. Waiting for them in the shadowed control room was Fury, standing at the head of the table, with Agent Hill who looked slightly worse for wear and finally there was Dr Banner, looking somewhat withdrawn, wrapped in a red blanket, his gaze fixed on a somewhat familiar jacket folded before him on the table. He looked up upon Steve and Starks entry, focussing on Stark.

"What happened?" Starks voice was clipped and Banner looked away.

"Barton's attack took us by surprise, he had gained the allegiance of several of S.H.I.E.L.D's enemies. We have managed to regain Barton but we took on some heavy casualties. As well as a dozen S.H.I.E.L.D personnel, Thor was released in Loki's cage and both Agent Coulson and Potter were killed in action."

"What happened?" Stark repeated forcefully. Steve open his mouth to try to calm him when Fury elaborated.

"We don't know, the cameras in the cage room were damaged and they shorted out."

They sat in silence for a moment before Fury continued.

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket," he held up a set of cards that i recognised with an uncomfortable certainty. Fury only confirmed it with his next words, "I guess he never got you to sign them." Fury tossed them onto the table, a small mist of blood flying from them as they landed. Steve walked slowly to the table and picked one up as Fury continued.

"We're dead in the air here."

It was one of the main cards, a picture of him saluting and grinning towards the card holder. Blood now covered the top of the card, trickling down its face.

"Our communications, the location of the Cube, Thor, Potter. I got nothing for you. I lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming."

He remembered the annoyance he'd felt when he'd been asked to sign the card, the embarrassment. Looking back he remembered how excited the agent had been. Something worse than just loss stirred in him.

"Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number however because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Stark knows this,"

Steve looked at Stark who was now refusing to meet the gazes of anyone in the room, not even reacting when his name was said.

"called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could."

At this, Stark did look up, to glance at Fury, something simmering in his eyes.

"Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea. So did Harry Potter. In heroes." He seemed to be directing his words at Stark who turned and left the room.

He glanced at Banner who met his gaze before pulling the blanket tighter around himself.

"Well," Fury said, in the gap left by Tony, "It's an old fashioned notion."

I looked back at the blood stained cards. He hated those cards. Before, they were a reminder of his popularity and shows during the war; he knew that they had been necessary for morale but even now he still blushed slightly at the posturing he'd done. Now they were a sign of how they'd failed. He rose to his feet and followed Tony's footsteps. As far as he knew, the man hadn't suffered the loss of a companion in arms before, and he owed Howard that much.

Steve found Stark in the cage room, looking at the monitor that he'd apparently managed to get working again. Steve couldn't help but note as he walked up to the man that while the bodies had been moved, no one had made any effort to clean up the remains of the two red dried puddles of blood that coated the mesh he now walked beside.

He came to a halt at Starks elbow and looked at the screen that showed a feed from the room they were in. He recognised Agent Coulson pointing a large gun at Loki who'd trapped his brother in the cage. He watched Potter run into the room assess the scene and then wave a stick in Loki's direction. Green flashed around Loki and the camera picture dissolved into grey. Steve gave a sideways glance at Stark as the clip began to run through once more.

"I'm sorry Stark. I know he was a friend."

For a moment he thought Stark was going to ignore him.

"Stupid kid. He shouldn't have gotten involved."

Steve looked back at the screen, watching as Potter acted without hesitation. "He seems to have had quite a reputation."

"Yeah, well, look where that got him." Stark turned his head to look at Steve. "He was an idiot. They both were."

"Is this the first time you lost a soldier?"

"We are not soldiers." Stark's words were forceful. "I'm not marching to Fury's fife."

"Neither am I. He's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does. But right now we've gotta put that behind us and get this done." He watched Stark's eyes slide to the blood stains and spoke to bring his attention back to the situation at hand. The best way to get over loss is to act.

"Loki needs a power source. We can put together a list-"

"He made it personal." Starks's gaze snapped back to Steve and he cut off what he was saying.

"That's not the point." Steve said carefully. The desire for vengeance was all very well but it could hinder operations.

"That is the point." Stark contradicted. "That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?"

Steve recognised this fervour from Howard, when he was right on the edge of a breakthrough.

"To tear us apart."

"Yeah, divide and conquer is great, but, he know he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us; he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience."

Stark was moving around the room now as Steve began to understand what the other man was driving at. "Right! We caught his act in Stuttgart."

"Yeah, that was just previews. This is opening night. And Loki, he's a full tilt diva, right?" He nodded, somewhat unnecessarily as Stark just continued without acknowledging, "He wants flowers, he wants parades. He wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered..." Tony's tirade ground to a halt as realisation lit up his face. "Son of a bitch."

He left the room quickly, Steve following. "We need to go."

* * *

"Quite a predicament Mr Potter, want to tell me what happened?"

Harry looked around to see a familiar figure, standing a metre away with a small smile on his face.

"Kingsley." Harry greeted, standing and stretching out his hand which Kingsley shook warmly. The other man raised an eyebrow, "I must confess Harry, you're looking somewhat younger than when I last saw you."

Harry paused a moment, remembering that the last time he'd seen Kingsley had been at Neville's Wedding, during which he'd taken an aging potion. So used to not worrying about people from his past, he'd forgotten to take any precautions. At least he'd taken a moment to repair his shirt, a gaping slash, lots of blood and no wound would have raised some eyebrows, wizard hospital or no.

"Uh..." Harry said intelligently, his mind blank for plausible explanations.

"Don't worry Harry. I understand, The War left its mark on all of us in some way or another. How is your friend?"

Harry took a moment to digest what Kingsley had said and upon registering the fact that Kingsley obviously assumed that Harry's condition most likely had something to do with Voldemort, he looked back to the door he'd been waiting outside of.

"I've not heard anything yet. The Healers are still at work."

Kingsley nodded. "Want to tell me what happened?"

Harry shook his head, remembering the moment when he's come round.

The first thing he'd noticed was that Loki and his alien magic was gone, as was Thor, a space where the cage had been. That was when he saw Agent Coulson, lying on the mesh, blood leaking from wounds that covered his body. Recognising his own spell Harry had sworn and begun to cast the basic field healer spells that he knew. But he wasn't a trained Healer and aside from staunching the bleeding there wasn't much he could do. Unwilling to let the man die for his stupidity, he'd gripped the man's shoulder and apparated away, his last view of the ship being of Fury, standing near the door having just entered. He'd appeared in St Mungo's lobby, shouting for help, allowing the healers to whisk the man away before fixing his shirt and following.

"It appears that you still fail to stay out of trouble." Kinglsey observed. When Harry merely hummed in response, he continued, "Mrs Weasley and her husband are here as well. She arrived earlier today. She's in the Cliodna ward on the Ground floor. It's better than wasting away here."

Harry sighed and ruffled his hair, rising slowly in agreement. He couldn't help but notice that Kingsley took it as read that Harry knew about Hermione's condition.

"Thanks." He muttered before walking past him, sparing a glance at the door of the Healers Theatre before making his way to the stairs.

Ron was sat with Hermione who in turn was sitting up and engaging in the conversation. This was such an improvement that Harry couldn't help but grin as he watched from the door way. He rapped the door and the couple turned.

"Harry!"

"Harry! What are you doing here mate?"

Harry pulled a spare seat closer to the bed and sat down, "I was coming to see how Hermione was. Why are you here?"

Ron took on a disgruntled expression. "You know what I meant. Did you find out what happened?"

"Oh, it was some Norse God." Harry said offhandedly, "The Tesseract was a gateway. Of sorts."

"A Norse God?" asked Ron.

"Yeah, Loki."

"The Trickster?" Asked Hermione. At Harry's confirmation, she launched into an explanation of Norse mythology for Ron's benefit. "Not that I knew they were real, but who are we to comment on what's real and what isn't. What did he want?"

Harry summed up what he'd found out so far, finishing by telling them about Coulson.

"Oh, it's not your fault Harry!" Hermione tried to reassure him, backed by Ron. "It's interesting though. Why our magic reacts badly with it. Maybe it's due to..."

"Hermione?"

"Well, I was just thinking. Our magic is a child, compared to that of say, the Old Religion. And the Tesseract, well that's old. I mean I could tell by looking at it. So old that it's alien to us."

"Well it is from out of space-Oi!" He failed to duck when Hermione clipped him over the head.

"Not that sort of alien! You're powerful Harry, but it's like tossing stones at a boulder. Or a mountain."

"So what, we're screwed?"

Hermione looked at him pityingly. "Oh Harry. Think about it. You have access to an ancient power as well. What is older than Death?"

"But Death says that the Tesseract feels just as unnatural to him as it does to me. I feel it whenever the staff is used."

"Yes, as a warning, the powers being twisted in ways it shouldn't be. But Harry, it wasn't your normal magic side that felt it! You wouldn't have known that it was different if the Hallows hadn't told you! It's too completely different types of magic."

"But I used the elder wand-"

"To do our magic. That may have been more like throwing a larger rock at the mountain. Stronger, but still not enough."

"What else can I do then."

Hermione looked at him. "You really need me to spell it out?"

"Aside from turning invisible and summoning the dead, just how am I supposed to-"

"Tap into your powers as The Master of Death, not just as a wielder of the Hallows. In my research, I have come across references to such abilities."

"And just how am I supposed to harness that Hermione?"

"Sanskrit."

Silence.

"Sorry, what?"

"Harry, haven't you read any of my notes?"

"Course I have."

"Well, our magic is controlled by variants of Latin, because it was refined during a time that Latin was prevalent. Myths of the Master of Death continue well back into the Archaic times."

"But the Peverell Brothers-"

"They were the first of our kind to receive the Hallows from Death, Ron." Hermione told him, "They were around long before that under other names, but since it was pre-wand magic, it's hard to research it thoroughly. My point is the first language was Saskrit. So that is probably the language of Death. Treat it as you would Latin."

"There was a large part of your notes in another language..." Harry mused.

"Yes! Sanskrit! I also gave you the lexicon. So you could translate it!"

The gears were turning in Harry's head. "I need to get back to the Helicarrier. They'll be facing Loki soon."

"We'll watch out for your friend." Ron told him.

"Thanks."

"He's going to live."

Harry looked up to see Death leaning against the wall. Harry nodded in appreciation before standing.

"See you then."

They called farewell after him as he ran to the foyer, drawing the elder wand as he went. He'd barely crossed the threshold before he'd turned on his heel and he was being forced down the tube. He arrived in his living room, still just as he had left it what felt like ages ago.

He strode into his bedroom, crouched by the bed and pulled a box of papers from underneath it. Now that there was a glimmer of a possibility, it took on an urgency that belied the situation really. He flicked through pages of Hermione's writing, placing them on his bed. It was at the bottom of the pile that there were pages of another language and beneath that a thick sheaf that resembled a dictionary. This he grabbed eagerly.

He flicked through the pages, taking note of possibly useful words that may be able to turn into spells.

He stopped at one he could test without causing too much damage. He held up his wand before remembering that Hermione had said that it had been pre-wand era. Instead he raised his hand, palm up, focussed on it and sounded out the word.

"Prakaza." Nothing happened. He shifted and noticed that there was an emphasis drawn on the second 'A'.

"PrakAza." He tried again and this time, a bright white light flared brilliantly in his palm suddenly, nearly blinding him. He shielded his eyes and exclaimed in surprise as the light faded, leaving him blinking spots. Harry straightened his shoulders and tried again, this time focussing on controlling the amount of power he directed at the spell.

He smiled as a small light appeared in his palm and slowly grew as he trickled more power in. At that moment, a surge of the foreign power rushed through him, physically knocking him to the ground and sending papers flying. The shock caused his chest to constrict and he had to collect himself before he could pull himself up and stumble to the window. It was active, the Tesseract was active and he knew it. As though doused with water, he suddenly realised that the feeling was coming from the direction of his friend's tower and, taking all things into consideration, that was probably exactly where Loki was. The awareness of the power was still with him, pulsing as a small ache in his ribs but he found it easy to ignore as he prepared to apparate to Tony's tower.

Envisioning Tony's tower, he turned on the spot and left his apartment.

With a crack, he appeared on the top floor, near the bar, the Tessearct pulsating away but 10 metres from there. He opened his eyes to see Loki, standing by the window, grasping Tony by the throat. Both gazes were drawn to him and both widened in shock.

"You're alive!" Tony gasped. Harry barely had time to ponder this statement before Loki, who had turned his attention back to the man in his clutches, threw him out the window. Harry ran after him, but was stopped when a projectile sped in front of him, after Tony. Harry recognised the colours as one of Tony's suits and turned to face Loki, levelling his palm. The Asgaurdian looked at him, sneering.

"You're puny magic-"

Harry cut him off by snarling, "Agni," and watching flames blossom from his palm. Loki drew up a shield quickly, but through the flames, Harry could see him sweat. He closed his hands and the flames stopped.

"How-"

""There's someone else you've pissed off." Harry glanced sideways to see Tony, clad in a new suit hovering in the window. "His name was Phil."

And with that Tony blasted him with a repulsor, and Loki, still off guard from the flames went flying.

Just then a blast of energy erupted from the Tesseract and Harry, now in such close proximity, felt it to his bone. He doubled over, hand on his chest, trying to force it away, much as he had with his scar all those years ago.

"Harry!" He felt Tony at his side, a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm okay." Harry panted, straightening. After the initial eruption, the feeling dulled back to only a marginally more noticeable annoyance at the base of his ribs. "I'm fine."

He looked up, out of the window and saw a black hole opening in the sky, the sky peeling back to allow the blue light from the Tesseract through.

"Harry, how-"

"I think we've got a problem." Harry cut across Tony as he saw small figures flying from the hole, members of the Chitauri army.

"Shit" Tony muttered, diving out of the window, shooting off blasts to repel the enemy. Harry pulled out his firebolt and joined him, finding in his pocket the S.H.I.E.L.D earpiece that he'd removed at the hospital and putting it in.

He sent another blast of fire upwards,

"What about turning off the Tesseract?"

He asked Tony through the comms having noticed the device directing the light below them.

"Impenetrable barrier." Tony filled in for him, "How are you still alive?"

"Shouldn't I be? Pavana!" he sent a handful of them blowing back into the hole from whence they came, sending them careening into other machines which in turn blew up, but still more slipped through.

"Where were you?"

"I took Coulson to St Mungo's. It's a magic hospital." The use of this new magic was draining, using and therefore straining an underused muscle. It wasn't going to affect his performance yet, but he could feel the extra energy needed to control his new found abilities.

"Coulson's alive?"

Harry paused here to look at Tony who returned his gaze, "Yes. He was injured though." They continued to try and stem the flow.

"Fury said you two were announced dead by a medical team."

"Fury? But he saw me apparate."

There was a sardonic chuckle over the comms. "That manipulative bastard."

"It's no use." Harry looked down at the destruction that those who had escaped were wreaking on the city. Loki was walking out of the tower, surveying the destruction and Harry prepared to fly down to meet him when Thor landed on the tower. Harry pulled up, something told him to leave the brothers too

it.

"I'm gonna have a look at the Tesseract." He told Stark, who hummed in acknowledgment as Harry flew off. What he found was a mixture of magic and machinery. He tried for a second to let his magic try and mess with the machinery, but the Tesseract magic interfered with that. He reached out a palm.

"I wouldn't do that."

Harry turned to look at Death, "Why not? I though the whole point was that Death's magic was stronger."

Death smiled, "At this point that," he pointed at the sphere of energy, "Is like an egg. Have you ever tried to break an egg by putting pressure in the tip and base? It's impossible. Or very difficult. You need to find the weak spot. Blasting away at it won't help. Why not ask him?" Death pointed at a man lying several feet away. "He built it."

**A/N Tada**


	8. Sweet Ajambha

**A/N I own nothing.**

Harry withdrew from Selvig's mind, panting. He sat back on his heels, taking a moment to assess the situation. The city was screaming.

He stood slowly and scanned the destruction around him. Creatures were scuttling up the skyscrapers, chattering and breaking windows, eliciting screams from those inside. Sirens were wailing and untended flames wreaked their own destruction, licking around cars and lighting the petrol. The battle had obviously been waging for a while.

He looked at Selvig, the Eric that Hermione had been concerned about. He couldn't just abandon him.

"I'll watch him." He turned to see Death, sitting on a ventilator, his brown eyes tracing the scene for himself. He looked at Harry, "I'll tell you when he wakes up. You go kill things."

With a nod Harry apparated, appearing in the building that he'd just watch Chitauri overrun. He barely paused to take stock of the civilians cowering in the corner, being menaced by the aliens before he let loose another wave of fire. The aliens turned to the new threat only to be toasted a moment later.

He blew the remainder out of the window and looked at the terrified people. He realised that he didn't know what to say, or what advice to give them. Whether to stay put would be safer than to find somewhere to hide.

He settled on, "Stay safe," though he winced at the awkwardness before turning on the spot to appear on the roof.

He became aware of a chattering in his ear and found the S.H.E.I.L.D headset.

"We got him,"

Tony replied and Harry picked him out in the sky, a flash of red and flame, followed by what Harry could only liken to a giant millipede or blast ended skrewt, minus the stinger.

"Banner? "

Rodgers reply was approving, "Just like you said."

"You'd better tell him to suit up, I'm bringing the party to you."

Harry ran to the edge so he could keep Tony insight, watching as a tiny figure erupted into the green mass he recognised from the helicraft to meet the skrewt head on. It crumpled and Tony finished it off with a quick blast, resulting in a colourful explosion that set shrapnel flying. Was that thing a machine?

He apparated down to join them.

"I wondered when you were gonna re-join us." Tony quipped, his expression unreadable thanks to the mask.

"Potter!? What- How-?"

"Fury's a manipulative sod." Harry supplied by way of explanation to the shocked faces that were now staring at him. Even the Hulk appeared to be shocked.

"Wait does that mean Coulson-"

"Alive and out of surgery, "Harry cut across Barton, "It's nice to meet you now that, you know, you're not evil and I'm not 'dead'!"

"Tasha told me about you."

"Er, guys. Not to break up the reunion but-" They directed their gaze skywards and saw more skrewts, as Harry had decided to call them, escaping the portal.

"Captain, call it."

Rodgers took control, "Until we can close the portal our priority is containment. Barton I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter, anything gets more than 3 blocks out, to turn it back or you turn it to ash."

Harry interceded, "I've seen to Selvig, and I'll know when he wakes up. Maybe he can tell us something about the portal."

Rodgers nodded in acknowledgement, waiting for Tony to fly off with Barton before continuing.

"Thor, you gotta try and bottle neck the portal. You've got the lightning to lay the bastards out. You and me," he continued as Thor was pulled into the sky, pointing at Romanov, "We're going to stay on the ground keeping the fighting here. Potter-" Harry looked at the man, "I don't know what you're capable of, so kill as many as you can."

Harry nodded, "I can get them off those blasted scooters for you as well."

Looking at the critters flying about wrecking destruction, he realised that he had a very effective method of killing them. With a small smirk he took out his earpiece and slipped it into his pocket as he triggered his animagus transformation.

He barely paused to hear the other exclaim in surprise or the Hulks bellow before soaring into the sky as a streak of flame. He figured, as the whole MoD magic didn't need a wand, he should be able to- he mentally shouted the Sanskrit word and opened his beak allowing billows of flame to erupt and torch the Chitauri.

He swooped amongst the buildings, repeating this feat, occasionally deciding merely to rip them from their scooter with his claws and throw them at their counterparts.

He saw a skrewt bearing down on him. He soared up to meet it, but his flames seemed to have little effect. So instead he landed atop it with a clatter of claw on metal and shifted back. He placed his hand on it and growled, "_Ajambha._"

Suddenly he was falling. One moment there had been a writhing, but at least solid mass beneath him the next he was poised to become more acquainted with the Manhattan pavement than he would like.

"_Arresto Momentum_!" he yelled, coming to a jarring halt half a metre from the stone. He released the spell and caught himself before he smashed his face. He puzzled for a moment on what had happened before he saw, spattered on the pavement next to him, the remains of what looked like a frog. He supposed it could have been a coincidence, but something was telling him…

"What?"

"You meant _Askanda_." a familiar voice commented wryly, "Not _Ajambha_. Two completely different things. You know, you might as well just say it in English, I know what you mean. Only the purists really stuck to the rules. Even then, you needn't both using it against these things. The Tesseract sure, but this guys aren't affiliated enough for a good _reducto _not to blast them to pieces."

Harry glared at the man's out of place cheerful tone, "Weren't you supposed to be watching Selvig?"

"Oh, he's a wake, I'm came just in to see you, well, fall."

Harry continued to glare before slipping in the earpiece he had retrieved from his pocket.

"Guys, Selvigs awake, I'm going to see if there's anything I can do about the portal."

"I'm already on my way," came the response from Romanov, "Just keep fighting."

"Gottit," Harry acknowledged, taking note of Deaths pointed look at his sleeve where he'd stashed his wand and slipped it into his hand. Truth be told, he was beginning to feel the strain of the unfamiliar magic and it was a good feeling to slip back into something more comfortable.

From there he entered into a familiar pattern, turning on his heel and shooting spells in all directions.

"_Incendio Maxima!"_ he exclaimed, pointing his wand upwards. The cloud of flame exploded from its tip to engulf the first of a chain of Chitauri. Its fellows swerved to avoid the flaming mass but they too were incinerated. The intense heat was causing Harry to overheat so he wasted no time upon the death of the last alien in cancelling the spell.

"_I can close the portal._" Romanov's voice came over the comms and Harry paused after casting a silent _Sectumsempra_ on a Chitauri that was chasing after a young couple.

"What are you waiting for?" he asked in over Rogers making a similar point, before basting several more attackers with an _impetus_. He watched them get knocked back into several vehicles and crumple to the floor.

"No, wait."

Harry looked up at Tony's statement in time to see the flying figure streaking across the sea towards the city. The silhouette was bulkier than it should be.

"_Stark, these things are still coming._" As if to support the Captains remark, a new wave of Chitauri came soaring towards him. He was so occupied with fighting them back that he nearly missed Tony's reply. It took him a moment longer to process it as he froze a couple of the blighters mid-attack. A nuke? It clicked. A nuclear weapon. Images he'd found when researching muggle history ran behind his eyes.

"_I know just where to put it._"

Harry looked up and found Tony in the sky. He could pick out the shape of the missile. He then saw where it was headed.

"Stark, you know that's a one way trip."

"_Ignis Avis_." Harry a flame erupted out of his wand and unfolded into a large bird which soared through the hoard. He turned and found himself atop a sky scraper, but Tony was still too far away. He couldn't spell the thing reliably and while he had stronger magic, a nuke wasn't something to be experimenting with. The secret of broom-less flight had died with Voldemort. He was about to get the firebolt out, but he realised that there was nothing he could feasibly do.

"Tony!" he yelled, just before his friend went into the portal.

Everything went eerily still as he waited with bated breath for Tony to appear again. Part of him was riling against his uselessness. What the hell was the point of being here if he could do bugger all? Suddenly a wave of death rolled from the portal. He felt it sweep the city and saw the Chitauri fall as it touched them. He turned back to the portal, his seekers eyes searching for that flash of red. He felt a presence next to him. Death was by his shoulder, holding the brim of his cap as he peered into the sky.

"This can't be it for him." Harry implored the older man who tilted his head to look at him.

"That's not for me to say." He replied diplomatically.

"_Captain_?" Romanov's question was implied.

"Wait." But Harry was ignored as Rodgers gave the order for the portal to be closed. Harry was about to protest but deaths quiet voice stopped him.

"You can keep it open yourself."

Harry spun on his companion, "How?"

Death gave him an incredulous look. He spread his arms then pointed his fingers at himself.

"Right." Harry turned to the portal, "What do I say?" His mid was churning, he couldn't for the life of him remember a suitable phrase form his skim through of Hermione's notes. The pillar of light was quickly vanishing, as if rushing back into the portal.

"We've covered this."

Harry cursed himself and threw his hand out into the direction of the portal.

"_Commoror!"_

He felt his power latch onto the opening just as the Tesseracts power dissipated. The opening tried to force its way closed but Harry strained to keep it open. He used his power as a wedge while at the time sending a tendril through to try and find Tony. There was some sort of screen in the opening, almost a denseness of air. Probably to stop all the air rushing into the vacuum he reasoned, without interfering with physical entities. Or his magic, he thought as he slipped past it to find Tony floating in the vacuum, just a flicker of life, separated from the Earth's gravity just as the vacuum was from Earth's air. He gripped at the man with magic and towed him towards the portal. As soon Tony had passed through the wedge he'd formed with his power he released the spell.

The portal rushed closed and Harry felt the relief spread through him as the strain vanished. He hadn't realised how much power he'd been using until he fell to his hands and knees panting.

"Commoror?" asked Death dryly, kneeling down next to him.

Harry twisted his head to meet Death's gaze. "I'm comfortable with Latin."

That was the moment that he realised that upon releasing the portal he'd also lost his grip on Tony.

"Dammit." The roof he was kneeling on had a low railing so his view of his friend falling was unimpeded.

"_Sun of a gun_!"

"_He's not slowing down."_

Harry raised his hand again, his muscles complaining as he drew on the power once more.

"_Arresto Momentum!_"

Tony's descent slowed and Harry let himself calm slightly, the flicker of life he could feel in Tony offsetting his worry at his friend's lack of movement.

Tony was past the edge of the building now, steadily lowering toward the ground. There was massive crash and a flash of green and Tony was barrelled out of the air by the Hulk. Harry grabbed the edge of the building and leant forward, to keep track of his friend. His pulse slowed once more when he realised that the Hulk meant him no harm and was getting him to the ground the only way he could. In fact, he mused as Death pulled him to his feet, it showed that Banner was in there somewhere. He grinned and saluted Death wearily who inclined his head.

"Have fun with the clean-up. Don't forget to deal with the Tesseract. I'll leave it up to your discretion how."

"Okay. Thanks. For everything."

Death vanished and Harry apparated to the group on the road. It was lucky he didn't splinch himself, he supposed, he was magically drained enough. He stumbled as he appeared near his fellows to find them crouching by Tony. Hulk had ripped his friends mask off and Tony's face was impassive. The light in his chest was flickering. Harry stepped forward in concern, life was still flickering in his fiend, but if the light went off, there would be problem with the shrapnel in his chest. He was no scientist, but perhaps the healers at Mungos would help? Then again the magic concentration there may just cause the device to react dangerously. Tony had practically destroyed his lab in creating the element that runs it. Harry had seen the room before it had been reconstructed.

Harry's thoughts were interrupted as the Hulk roared. Harry jumped, but more importantly, so did Tony, the e light in his chest flaring back into life.

"What the hell?" He exclaimed, "What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me?"

It was just so… Tony that Harry couldn't help but laugh.

"We won."

* * *

Clint was making his way slowly but surely down the stairs. He'd tried the elevator, sure but buildings like these have such annoying safety protocols. He'd bashed himself a fair bit when he'd swung down from the building, and at that point he could feel every bruised muscle, every scratch.

"We won."

The words came over his headset and something that had been tight in his chest loosened, just a notch. The guilt that had been bearing down on him since he woke up was alleviated slightly now that it was over. He came to a landing and saw through a glass window in the door that led to the rest of the floor a woman. Half of her was blocked by a desk, but he could see the blood pooling around her, matting her hair and staining in her suit. She was clearly dead, her lifeless eyes obvious from here. He turned away and continued his stiff trudge down the stairs. No matter what, he reminded himself, all the lives lost today, he had had a hand in. The pit was back in his stomach.

He heard footsteps coming up the stairs. He automatically went on guard only to see a head of scruffy black hair come around the corner. The owner of the hair he recognised as Potter, the reputed 'wizard'. Well he couldn't argue that now, he'd seen the guy fight with coloured lights and fire. He looked battered but happy and a smile broke onto his face.

"Ah, there you are. Figured you were somewhere in this building. The others are going to confront Loki. Coming?"

Clint nodded and commenced walking. He was surprised when Potter came up to meet him and offered him a hand.

"I'd use magic," the other man told him, but I'm saving it up to apparate up to Starks, where Loki is. It's easier with line of sight. Don't worry I won't splinch."

The last bit was said with a trace of humour that was lost on Clint.

"Splinch?"

"Leave something behind."

Clint hovered over the image conjured by this idea for a moment before asking.

"That happen often then?"

Harry smiled, "Not as often as we may think, but it is a risk. Don't worry, as long as we keep in mind the three 'D's we should be fine."

"And what are the three 'D's?" Clint asked in the same light hearted tone.

"Destination, determination and… I forget the other one."

"That's encouraging."

"Isn't it just."

Potter was quiet for a few moments before he drew in a breath and began to speak. "There's a spell, in the Wizarding World. The Imperious Curse. It's an Unforgivable. Casting it on another human being lands you a life sentence in Azkaban- that's the Wizard Prison. This spell gives the user the ability to control another's mind. The victim is aware of what they are doing, but it's like..." Potter paused, apparently searching for the words to describe what he meant, "like nothing matters. Nothing but obeying the voice, cause what else makes sense?"

Clint was silent, not entirely sure what to say in response to this stream of information. He wasn't entirely sure where this was going, but he had an inkling and he was uncertain as to whether he wanted to hear any more. It sounded like Potter was talking from experience.

"I was involved in a war a while back. It was vicious, lasted for years. Clean-up is still going on today. A fair number of Voldermort's army had been Imperioused. Forced into doing some truly horrendous acts, entirely against their will. I refused to harm anyone I knew was acting under the curse. Once the war was over and the spell broke, by our laws, the victim wasn't guilty of any of their crimes. Their family and friends loved them no less. If you have no control over your mind it's not your fault."

Potter looked across to Clint who didn't meet his gaze, "I'm not saying that it'll be easy, I know that there will be guilt. But it is important for you to know, on some level, that your team, and Romanov, Natasha, don't blame you."

They had come to the ground floor and the wreckage of the entrance hall lay before them. They began the obstacle course carefully, keeping an eye out for jagged shards of glass and twisted, makeshift dangers that were once chairs.

"You were under its influence once then?" Clint asked softly.

Potter paused in thought, "A long time ago." He supplied, "A couple of times because a crazy guy masquerading as our teacher decided to give us a taste of the Unforgivables. And once by Voldermort himself, who wanted me to bow." He trailed off obviously thinking back to those times.

"Bow?"

"Yes he was that puffed up."

Clint forced a smile, "What is it with evil that creates such arrogant bastards?"

Harry laughed as they came out into the street. They turned and saw Starks Tower at the far end of the street.

"Right, you might want to take a deep breath." Potter warned before turning sharply on the spot. Clint only just had time to obey for the weirdest sensation overtook him. It was like being forced down a tube. He was glad he'd taken a breath, but it soon felt like it wasn't going to be enough. He needed to breathe-

He took a deep breath as soon as the constriction around his chest faded. It was only Potter's grip on his arm that stopped him stumbling away.

"What the hell?" he gasped.

"And that is your introduction to Wizard Transport," Potter grinned cheerfully, "And neither of us is splinched. Brilliant!"

"Who would choose to travel that way?" Clint asked somewhat superfluously he realised, because obviously wizards had been doing so for years.

Potter didn't bother to dignify his spluttering with an answer and instead directed him with an outstretched arm off Stark's balcony. It was the long one, the one that removed Tony's suit as he landed, but now the machine was dormant. Either way, it meant more walking.

They entered what was once a nice room, the penthouse of Tony's building, to see the Avengers huddled near a figure lying in the floor. Not on the floor. Loki was lying in a full length crater, courtesy of the Hulk, Clint would have guessed. The creature did seem uncharacteristically smug.

"Ah, Robin Hood, you've decided to join us, you too Merlin. He's gonna wake up soon. Wanna make a show of it?"

Clint grinned, his eyes tracked on the one who'd caused all this misery. "I'd be glad to."

* * *

They were due to gather in the main control centre on the helicarrier which for now was settled somewhere in a 'top secret' location, just outside of Roswell for repairs. They'd cleaned up and Harry for one was feeling refreshed in a loose T-shirt and jeans. Even Thor's armour had a new shine. He walked up to the god in question, the only other Avenger to appear thus far.

"I know what you intend to ask." The god rumbled.

"The Tesseract is dangerous." Harry countered, "It's against nature."

"I'd disagree." Thor replied, "It is a part of nature. It was twisted to defy it through my brother's wishes. It belongs back on Asguard."

Harry was inclined to concede the point. He had a better idea, "You don't require the sceptre however?"

Thor looked down at him, "That you may have Warlock. You plan to do what I think you do?"

"Yup." Harry popped the 'p' as Steve came into the room. The room filled quickly after that, Tony being the last to arrive yet again. He took the seat next to Harry and struck up banter about the schwarma place they'd been to the night before until Fury called for quiet.

"We need to decide how to proceed." He told the room at large.

"What, no congrats?" Tony asked belligerently, "No _Thank you_?" Fury eyed the other man before continuing.

"Loki-"

"Will be coming home and suffer the punishment decided for him." Thor immediately supplied.

A couple of protests sprang up around the table.

"He committed the crime here, we deserve justice."

"It's his family, what's he expecting? A grounding?"

"Actually," Harry commented, breaking through the impending argument, "From what I've read about the Norse Gods, they could be more inventive than we could ever be. That said… I wouldn't mind seeing him pitched against a Dementor…"

"Dementor?"

Harry opened his mouth to explain but Thor cut across him.

"He is of Asguard. He has broken our laws as well. He will not be punished lightly." He glared around the table and no one spoke up, but several people looked disgruntled. "And I'll be taking the Tesseract."

Another uproar. Thor had to shout to make himself heard. "It belongs on Asgaurd!"

"It was stolen from there in the first place!"

"We were able to guard it for centuries. You held it for barely a year."

It wasn't long before Fury conceded. Harry was about to speak when Thor made his final point.

"The sceptre will go with Warlock Harry Potter."

Fury raised an eyebrow.

"I don't see why that should happen. If you do not want it on Asguard. It shall stay with us."

"No."

"The sceptre is actually one of the reasons I'm here in the first place." Harry decided to add, his Head Auror mask sliding into place. He met Fury's gaze. "You must have realised that something like this was the case."

The other Avengers were looking between Harry and Fury, obviously aware of the friction between them.

"You wizards have all the power you need," Fury said, a inflection that could be interpreted as a sneer entering his voice. "Why would you need the sceptre?"

"To destroy it." Harry said evenly. He rose his voice to cut through the protests before they started. "As long as the sceptre exists, there is a conduit to the Tesseract. You don't have the Tesseract, so all you'll have is a shiny beacon screaming 'steal me' to any passing megalomaniac who wants the power it offers. You might as well taunt people to try again. Just look at the destruction around you!"

He gestured at the dishevelled room.

"What gives you the right to make that decision?" Fury asked levelly.

Harry smiled grimly, seeing Death making silly gestures behind Fury's head.

"Trust me, I have a powerful backer."

* * *

"What do you suggest?" Harry asked Death as he looked at the sceptre on the floor in front of him. It had taken a healthy debate to get past Fury and even then, Harry had had to sneak the thing out before Fury could secrete it away and barricade him with tape, paperwork and excuses. He'd seen Thor and Loki off-world before apparating away with the sceptre to the roof of his apartment building. Death was lying on the cement next to him, looking up at the sky using his coat as a pillow.

"What do you think?"

Harry glared at the figure that'd closed his eyes and appeared to be dozing with a cat-who-got-the-cream grin.

"Well MoD powers are my only option aren't they? So what, to I just say for it to be destroyed?"

"You can't destroy energy." Death lectured him, with his most patronising voice. "You can only change it.

Harry grimaced, "What about magic? You can break wands."

"The wands are a conduit. Did you not learn _anything_ at school?" Death peered incredulously at him from under one eyelid before closing it and settling back into his coat. "The energy comes from you- you form it into spells and send it off it does what it does, transforms back into some form of magical energy and joins the cycle once more. Very like Muggle energy, Light bulbs and all that jazz."

"So if I drain this of energy, then destroy the conduit…" Harry suggested slowly.

"Pretty much."

"So, wise one, how do I do that, and where will this energy go? Especially when it's spent the past week causing so much havoc."

"Nothing comes back from beyond the veil." Death answered pulling his cap down to cover his eyes.

Harry remembered the archway, the tattered veil and its podium. He'd been back a couple of times since his first encounter with it, but unless his duties had forced him to enter the department, which was a rare occurrence anyway, he gave the black door a wide berth.

"What's beyond the archway?" He contemplated, looking at death curiously.

Death lifted the peak of his cap. "What? Master of Death not enough for you? You ain't the master of Any-and-all-things-mysterious, you know." He grinned at Harry's glare, "Life needs some unanswerable questions don't you think?"

"You certainly seem to have an unending supply of them." Harry retorted.

Death merely chucked, "Where's the fun in sticking around forever if you can't cryptic every now and always. You'll learn."

Harry grumbled for a moment before standing and stretching.

"To London it is then, I can set up that meeting Kingsley wanted as well."

Death nodded before looking up with a sudden idea. "You couldn't get some jelly babies for me could you? The sweets. From one of those old sweet shops in the little paper bags? Nothing beats the classics and I have a bit of a sweet tooth." He sat up defensively when Harry raised an eyebrow in his direction, "It's not as if I can walk into a shop and buy them!"

Obviously the thought of just nicking them didn't occur to his companion, something which made Harry smile. Despite being Death, Death was just so…

"You can eat?" Harry asked dubiously, thinking of a ghost's method of 'eating'.

Death scoffed, "Course I can! It's not as if I need to, to exist mind you, but you don't eat candy floss for survival do you?"

It was with this odd request in mind that Harry bid a temporary farewell to Bruce, who'd taken up residence in Tony's labs, Pepper who was minding the reconstruction and finally Tony who threatened Harry with questions upon his return. An hour later he was stepping out of the chimney in Grimmauld place, ready to close the chapter on the Tesseract.

**A/N  
This is not the end, I just wanted to get the movie out of the way. The next chapter is already partly written and planned and I have solved the crux that was tripping me up. I apologise for the lack of an update schedule, or an ability to stick to one, but in return I promise longer chapters.  
Credit for the 3 D's quip goes to **Lunabell Marauder Knyte, **as I can honestly say that if I hadn't read something similar in her HP/A Fic 'Trouble Finds Him' it would never have occurred to me to refer to them.**


	9. The Wizard and I

**A/N Enjoy,  
****Disclaimer: I own none of the verse's brought together in the creation of this fic.**

**Summary: Harry, Wizard, Master of Death, New York PI and friend of Tony Stark has left for England to destroy Loki's scepter. Tony has been left to ruminate on the Wizarding World.**

It had been a week since Harry had left for England. Bruce was enjoying himself a couple of floors down in some of the labs while Pepper was overseeing the renovations. Tony couldn't stand watching the builders tramping over what he saw as his building so he'd made his excuses and secreted himself away on some of the lower, undamaged levels. To while away the time, he was on a secure database, trying to find out more about his elusive friend and the new world at his fingertips. And failing, quite miserably. With his real name, he found traces of Harry in the public system when he was a kid. All information however stopped when he was 11 and removed from the public school system. He supposed it was to be expected of a technology shy society. Now to hack S.H.I.E.L.D.

"Hey, sir."

"Tell Pepper I'm off saving some civilians or something."

"She said you'd say that." Happy said, walking into the room and up to the desk.

"Really, those exact words? She's getting better."

"Harry Potter? What are you researching Harry Potter for?"

Tony swiveled to look at Happy, annoyed, "Haven't you learned that it's rude to peer over people's shoulders?"

"Well... wait. Mr Evans is Mr Potter isn't he!"

"Maybe he is." Tony muttered, back to tapping away at S.H.I.E.L.D's defenses "Maybe he's also a wizard." He continued to tap away until he realized that Happy hadn't responded to that last statement. "Wait a sec. You know about Potter?"

Happy shrugged. "I'm just surprised I didn't recognize him. Then again he wasn't such a big thing over here as he was across the pond. I knew the scar was familiar."

"You know about wizards." Tony stated, sipping his coffee, trying to wrap his head around Happy knowing something so amazing that he didn't.

Here Happy looked slightly shifty, "Well yeah, I'm a squib aren't I? I'm more surprised to find that you know! What with the Statute and everything."

Tony frowned, "Squib?"

"Magic parents, no powers meself. Hey, if you want, I could turn up some old articles from the war. Some of the British ones too if you're interested. The archive's not that far from here."

"That." Tony started, "would be great. Specially as it seems that Fury discovered my bug. Dammit." Happy left quietly, leaving Tony to try and find another way into S.H.I.E.L.D's database. Fury had obviously been expecting to be hacked however, so his efforts were to no avail. It was a few hours later that Happy returned, finding him muttering at his monitor, his coffee forgotten and cold.

"Err, sir? I have the papers you wanted."

Tony spun in his chair to face Happy who was holding a fair sized sheaf of newspapers. He handed them to Tony who dropped all but one of the papers on his desk. He flicked the other one open with a flick of the wrist before nearly dropping the thing in surprise. On the front cover was Harry, which in itself wouldn't be that unusual seeing as these were supposed to be articles on him, except for the fact that he was moving. His friend was glaring at him, eyes roving around in such a way that Tony had the impression that picture Harry couldn't actually see him. He scanned the rest of the page. The paper was the Daily Prophet and the headline was "Harry Potter "Disturbed and Dangerous!" He began to read the article, his eyes flickering over the words of this 'Rita Skeeter'.

_… regularly collapsing at school…_

_… scar on his forehead (relic of the curse with which You-Know-Who attempted to kill him)…_

_…Potters brain affected by the attack…_

"Parseltongue?"

"The language of snakes. It's very rare, and associated with dark magic." Tony looked up at Happy who was still lingering a couple of feet away. "These articles are actually before the war broke out but I figured you would be interested."

Tony turned back to the paper, "They aren't very Pro-Harry are they?"

"Well that's when the smear campaign started. After the war, the Prophet didn't even retract its slander or apologize, just got on the Potter train and continued on its way."

"Huh, they're journalists, what would you expect?" Tony snorted, diving back into the article, "Thanks Happy."

He continued through the papers for the next couple of hours drawn in by the story and world of his friend. Part of him still rebelled when it came across some new form of wizardry that seemed ludicrous, but he pushed it aside knowing that at this point that there was little that should surprise him. Occasionally he would flick through a paper to examine other articles; accidents with love potions that went wildly out of control, the threat of uprising from Goblins that apparently ran the Wizarding banks and match reports of a game called 'Quidditch' which was played on brooms. One match had apparently lasted five days. His main attention however was on following the progress of his friend as he went from being slandered a dangerous liar to being heralded as the possible savior and Chosen One to then being labelled as 'Undesirable No. 1' and finally being lorded about as a champion and slayer of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Annoyingly enough, the actual name of this You-Know-Who wasn't mentioned, something which began to grate a couple of papers in. He found upon reaching the end that he still knew very little about his friend. He knew no how others saw him, or wanted him portrayed and it left a bad taste in his mouth. Knowing the surface of what Harry had gone through was difficult enough to digest, facing dragons and evil mazes at fourteen, fighting and winning a war at seventeen was more than Tony would wish on anyone. Not only watching someone die in front of you but also enduring speculation that may you'd killed him yourself? These wizards were morons,

Tony told Jarvis to get the jet ready. He had someone to talk to.

* * *

Harry needed a walk to clear his head. He was strolling through London when he heard a beeping noise. He recognized the tone and scrambled for his phone. He looked down at it and noticed that he had over a dozen missed calls. He taped at the keys to bring up a list and saw that they were all from the same number, Tony's. Or rather JARVIS on Tony's behest. He pressed redial and held the phone to his ear.

It was picked up on the third ring.

"You managed to fall off the radar."

"Well yeah, magic does that. What do you want?"

"Can't a guy contact a friend for no other reason than to say hi?"

"Not quite so persistently, no. Wait," Big Ben was tolling in the background, and was being echoed towards him from down the line, "Where are you?"

"Around."

Harry sighed. "You have GPS, meet me at Grimauld Place, in the park."

He hung up and continued his stride, walking quickly now that he had somewhere to be. Tony obviously didn't want to appear too eager as Harry got there first. He leaned against the fence, looking at number 12, where he'd been staying upon coming back to England. Hermione had kept the place in order in his absence with the help of a certain couple of House Elves.

His mind was just wandering to the meeting just then with the Minister when he saw a familiar figure walking towards him.

"Tony."

"Good to see you too, how's the scepter " his friend grinned, removing his sunglasses with his signature grin. Harry returned it.

"Gone. How're the tower renovations going?"

Tony shrugged, "Peppers got them all in hand. What are we doing here then?"

"Before we do anything, I have to ask. How dependent is your arc reactor on electricity?"

Tony frowned at him, obviously trying to figure out why the question relevant. "It isn't It's powered by a whole new element."

"I'm asking because magic tends to mess with electrical things. I wouldn't want the reactor to start faulting, for obvious reasons. That said, if you feel it going at all fitsy, you need to tell me, and we'll get out of there."

"Fitsy?"

"The point stands."

"I understand. What are we doing here then?"

"My home is Number 12, Grimmauld Place."

Tony glanced around, "I know this may come as a shock, but there is no- whoa. Do all wizard's houses do that?"

Harry grinned and clapped Tony across the shoulders, "Only the cool ones. Come on, I'll get you a cup of tea."

Tony followed him up the steps as Harry let him into the house.

"So is this always here, or does it vanish, some sort of alternate dimension?"

"It's always here I guess, as long as you are on the top step you're invisible to the street. But you can apparate onto it, so it's got to be a fixed location."

"So I can see it because..."

"A secret keeper, in this case me, told you it was here. It's a protective charm."

The door opened smoothly and Harry crossed the threshold, pulling off his jacket as he went.

"Paranoid?"

"The previous owners were."

"I trust you had a good day Master?"

"Yes thanks Kreacher, could you put the kettle on?"

"What is that?"

"Winky is doing just that Master."

"What is that?"

"Thanks, Kreacher, this is my friend Tony, he'll probably be staying with us for a while."

"I'll set up a room."

"Hello, right here!"

"Sorry," Harry turned, "Tony, this is Kreacher. He's a house elf. He's served in this house for years. When I inherited the house, he came with it."

Tony was looking in disbelief after Kreacher who'd left up the stairs. "So he's a servant?"

"Yes, though he and Winky react violently to being paid, they just take a couple of days off a month. I tried to pay them in the beginning but the galleons would just show up under my pillow the next day. It's all very well Hermione changing the laws, but it'll be years before the elves accept them. "

"So they were slaves then?"

"Indentured, but their quality of life depended on their family. When I first met Kreacher he was a miserable old sod. Hermione, being a muggle born was outraged when she found out about them and formed SPEW, the Society for the Protection of Elfish Welfare."

"Spew?"

"Yeah, we magical folk seem to have a tendency towards slightly silly acronyms."

"Your tea is ready sirs! Will you have it in the sitting room?"

Harry looked down at the tiny elf, clad in a small pinafore and apron.

"Thanks Winky, we'll come into the kitchen. Lead the way."

Tony paused to look at some of the pictures lining the hall. As the pictures in the newspapers had been, they were moving. He examined the faces, and realised that he recognised them from Harry's photo album, only in this they were waving at him. He spotted Harry, who was being nudged by the large bearded man who then pointed out at Tony. Mini-Harry waved, and Tony, without thinking gave a small wave with two fingers back.

"That was taken just before their wedding," said Harry, indicating a tall red headed man and a stunning blonde woman by his side. The man had three large red scars running across his face, but he smiled regardless and clutched his fiancée closer to him. A cheeky looking red headed man in front of him, standing next to someone who was obviously his twin stuck his tongue out while his brother doffed his ear. Tony felt his eyes widen.

"He just took his ear off."

Harry just looked bemused, "Yeah, It's become a party trick of his. The kids love it. You coming?"

Tony followed his friend into the small kitchen. He looked around, taking in the old fashioned style and the bronze pots. His eyes were drawn to another 'House Elf' that he was going to assume was female because of the hair and the slightly pointier face.

"Good Day Master Harry." She squeaked as she took cups down from a shelf. She slipped off her foot stool and placed them on the table before bowing to Harry.

"Winky, this is my friend Tony."

"Good Day Mr Tony sir."

"Uh, just Tony please."

A whistling filled the air and the elf darted past the pair of them to lift a kettle off the stove. As she set about preparing the tea- Tony just nodded when Harry asked if the beverage was okay- he sat at the table as Harry took a seat opposite him.

"So what are you doing this side of the pond?"

Tony accepted the empty cup presented to him before looking back at his friend.

"I found some newspapers," Harry merely raised an eyebrow and gestured for him to continue, "about you, from the War."

Harry sat back, looking contemplative, "That's a fairly cumbersome topic. Still have that list of questions?"

"It only grows."

"Shoot."

Tony was looking straight at Harry's face as he spoke, so naturally the first question that came to mind.

"Your scar, the one on your forehead. Apparently not a car crash."

Harry laughed, shifting to allow Winky to pour the now brewed tea. "Thanks. Yeah. No, not a car crash. That was what my Aunt and Uncle told me growing up. Well if you've read the papers, you've heard of Voldemort?"

"So _that's _the guy's name! What's with the whole You-Know-Who business?"

"His name is feared. The scar was a result of a killing curse that failed. I'm the only person to survive the curse, the first time when I was only one year old." He grimaced, "That's why I was famous."

Tony in turn was frowning. "That was mentioned in the papers. One year old? Why would anyone, even a crazy tyrant try to kill a baby!?"

Harry sighed, "Tom was a twisted man." And with that Harry launched into the story, describing the life of a boy named Tom Riddle who grew up to be an evil tyrant. Such stories had been debated in the newspapers but the facts mentioned were obscure and conflicting. Harry's on the other hand was surprisingly rich in detail, from his descriptions of how the man changed physically to how the Wizarding world was altered by him and the journeys that the man made. It ended with an extremely vivid description of the man's attack on his parents. Harry's voice changed slightly as he finished the story, growing slightly terser, tipping Tony off to his unsettled-ness in speaking of the events.

"And the curse failed, rebounded everybody thought. Voldemort was gone and I was left with my life and a scar. All because of a prophecy."

"So prophecies are real? Seeing the future and all that jazz?"

"Yup. It's not a highly regarded magic though. Real ability is rare. I took Divination as an O.W.L and that was just a farce. The teacher as capable of real prophecy occasionally but she didn't even realize she did it. The rest was just posturing."

"Like 'muggle' fortune tellers?"

"With candles and incense to boot."

There was a tapping at the window and Tony turned to see a small _bird_ of all things on the ledge outside. Its large amber eyes seemed to be impeaching them to open the window which surprisingly enough Kreacher did, lifting the latch with a crack. The, what he identified to be an owl, hopped into the room before fluttering over to Harry. It set down on the table with a clutter of claws before proffering a leg to Harry. Tony watched with a mutely raised eyebrow as Harry retrieved what appeared to be an envelope from the bird and pet it on the head.

"Thanks Rapier, Tony this is Rapier." He lent back and grabbed a morsel from the jar on the counter behind him and gave it to the owl which promptly gulped it down before making its way to a perch that Tony hadn't noticed previously by the now open window.

"And there is an owl called Rapier because…"

Tony asked as he watched the bird preen itself. Harry had cracked the wax on the envelope, _how archaic were these people?_

"He's Ron and Hermione's, they named him after Ron's late brother."

Tony had the sneaking suspicion that Harry was enjoying Tony's clueless-ness and decided not to deign the ribbing with a response.

"Sorry for being rude, one moment." Harry scanned the letter, looking up at Tony briefly before reaching some paper from a drawer underneath the owl food jar.

"I shall fetch a quill for sir." Kreacher croaked, darting from the room.

Harry leaned forward, "You know that friend I told you about, the one who was caught up in the S.H.I.E.L.D base when Loki attacked?" He barely waited for Tony to nod before continuing, "Well she's out of the hospital and her in-laws are having a celebration. Any excuse to gather everyone together. Do you want to come? They won't mind. Molly loves an extra mouth to feed and Arthur loves Muggles."

"Sure," Tony replied smoothly and Harry grinned as he took a genuine _quill_, feather and all from the elf and scribbled a note on the paper that Tony now noticed was too think to be normal paper. Was it parchment?

Harry called Rapier over and tied the note to its leg and released it out of the window. Tony watched it flutter off into the sky.

"You use birds for post."

Harry nodded, "Yup. Every morning at school, hundreds of owls would come to deliver the post. It was a spectacular sight."

"I can imagine," Tony muttered his attention on the window," The impossibility… This house squeezed itself from between two connected houses, how can there be windows? And visible space?"

"I must confess, I know it happens, but I don't know why. You kinda have to accept the unbelievable when magic involved."

That was unhelpful. "Are there no limits?" Tony asked. When he'd found out about magic, his whole world had shifted, everything he knew was solidified in science with its rules and limits. No matter how impossible something seemed, there would always be an explanation because it had to be achievable somehow, even if the methods may be somewhat impossible. But Magic defied all of that. It was the house that brought it home to him. He hadn't really seen this side of magic before now. Rubbing it in was a duster brushing down the shelves by itself in the corner of the room.

"Yes." Harry sat down, "There are many laws, both magical and ministry that govern our people. For example, Food cannot be conjured out of thin air, which is the first of Five Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration."

"What are the others?" Tony asked curiously

"Money," Harry asserted, his brow furrowed, "I think. I must confess, I can't remember. It's been years since then. I only remember the first one because it was extremely annoying."

"You are very helpful." Tony sniped. "So do you wizards use normal currency? Or do you just use the cash of the country you're in?"

Later that afternoon, after several refills of tea and quite a number of biscuits, Tony was still asking questions about the semantics of the wizarding world. Occasionally Harry would release snippets of his past in his explanations, a centaur that had been banished from his tribe because he dared to help humans, books which could react violently and take a hand off and so on. It was a while before Tony realized that the conversation had drifted away from the topics he had originally planned to confront Harry about. That was the problem, every answer to a question only raised more and it was easy to get lost in the knowledge.

"So wait, let me get this straight. You can use magic to: Tear people to bits, cut them to ribbons, blow them up, turn them into a menagerie of different creatures, set them on fire, drown them, mutilate them, wipe their memories etc. All very… dangerous, let's say and all horrible things, but only the one that kills you quietly, no pain or anything is the only one that is outlawed, considered 'Unforgivable' next to the torture and mind control ones? There are worse deaths at your wand tips, that do a lot more damage and apparently _aren't _illegal! What kind of society is this?!"

Harry smiled wryly, "I suppose it's because all those spells can be used for other reasons, non-violent reasons. If you were to use them on a person, then yes, you'd go to Azkaban. Avada Kadavera is very… final. There is no doubt as to your intentions."

Tony hummed to himself and he tapped the table contemplating the information he'd just been given.

"It's nearly time to go." Harry commented, looking down at a pocket watch, a curious gold thing with stars on the dial and a dent on the back. "Come on, I want to show you something."

Tony rose and followed Harry though to a room just off the hall. The first thing he noticed was how empty the room was. Green wallpaper, wooden paneling and an oak floor, Tony would have pegged it for a dining room, except it lacked a big table. He noticed that Harry had turned to the wall behind them so Tony followed his gaze and saw what could only be an intricate family tree.

He let his eyes travel across the names and dates, headed by small stitched portraits. The dates around eye level were recent Tony realized. Well, as recent as the 1900's were. Some of the older pictures looked newer than the surrounding fabric however and he hovered over these. Isla Black, Phineas Nigellus, Cedrella… where did they get these names? These were strange even for Brits!

"They were burned off." Harry informed him, from his shoulder, "Hermione recreated and once fixed it extended." He gestured to Cedrella and traced his finger from her name as it became that of the 'Weasley family. Tony looked ahead, "Hermione, that's your friend right?"

Harry nodded, "Most of the pure-blood families are all inter-related." He informed Tony- "It was all about keeping the blood pure. Septimus Weasley was a 'blood traitor' though, that's why Cedrella was blasted off. Sirius ran away, and his uncle, Alphard was blasted off for giving him gold."

"Tough family."

"You have no idea. Be glad we managed to get Mrs Black's portrait down. A muggle setting foot in her house would be too much to bear, curtain or no. It was stuck with a permanent stick charm. Hermione said she had to get someone to cut away the wall and repair it later."

Harry must have been aware of the look he was receiving from Tony, but was casually ignoring it.

"We've marked the known followers of Voldemort here," He indicated the stitched black "DE" in Bellatrix Lestrange's portrait.

Tony spotted other such stitched figures on the Tapestry, the majority close to the main Black branch.

"I presume there's a lot of general Wizarding politics that I'm missing."

Harry nodded. "Just a few. I'd explain, but we have to head off now. I can give you your first taste of apparition!"

The unmasked anticipation in his companion's voice made Tony's stomach twist unwillingly.

"Nice try, Legolas has already explained your little teleportation trick."

Harry grinned, "Fine, we can floo instead ."

"Wai- wha-? You're doing this to annoy me!" Tony called after his friend as he was left alone in the bare room. He scanned over the carefully designed faces; set in a variety of different expressions that he assumed represented their personality. He found Harry's face beneath two people that he presumed were his parents. Why had Harry shown him this?

"Coming?"

"Don't get your robes in a twist!" Tony threw back at him, turning to leave, but not before noticing a small list of dates under Harry's name. He frowned; the last one had been ten days previously. His brow remained furrowed as he left the room and followed the sounds of Harry's moving about to what he presumed was the lounge. He was standing next to a roaring fire, a small pot in his hand.

He proffered the pot to Tony how raised an eyebrow at it.

"Take a handful," Harry explained, "and toss it into the fire."

Tony did so cautiously. He managed to maintain a stoic facial expression as the fire exploded into green flames. He had to stop expecting anything normal of this world.

"Now step into the fire." Wait, what? "And say clearly as you can 'The Burrow'."

"You want me to step into a fire?"

"And say 'The Burrow". Yes."

"Is this supposed to be some ironic statement to the witch burnings?"

"Just trust me okay. And try not to swallow any ash. That's what I did my first time. Ended up in the wrong grate."

Tony drew in a deep breath.

"The Burrow?" Harry gave a quick nod and without further ado, Tony stepped into the grate. He nearly flinched, expecting the flames, but was instead greeted by a faint tickling sensation. He marveled at this for a moment before enunciating, "The Burrow", and suddenly he was spinning. Views from what were obviously other peoples fireplaces flashed past him. He was just wondering about privacy issues that could arise from such arrangements when he came to a sudden stop. Eh took a moment to orient himself before stepping out into the lounge of what he presumed must be called 'The Burrow'.


End file.
